Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight
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A classic brawler: One Must Fall 2097
2nd October 2021actionThere was a time when brawlers on PC weren't that common. Not that today it's different, but finding a good brawler "versus" fighting game was really difficult. One Must Fall was one of those games: a perfect blend of everything a brawler needs to be. I finished One Must Fall ... -
1986 in retro gaming: Archon, Karateka, Space Quest
24th July 2021action, adventure, strategy30 years ago, computer gaming was growing slowly. Computers like the C64 and the Spectrum were the main source of digital amusement among Home Computer owners. Finally after a few disappointing years, in 1986 a handful of interesting games began to conquer the PC public:Archon was an hybrid between an ... -
Grand Theft Auto: the beginning
10th July 2021action, racingIn Grand theft auto the player takes the role of a criminal who can freely roam around the city (Liberty City) completing tasks for the local mobs: stealing cars, killing pedestrians, all of it while avoiding the police and the army. The freedom of gameplay and the "I'm the bad ... -
Wizball in a world without colors
19th June 2021action, puzzleWizball is an abandoned shoot'em up created by Jon Hare and Chris Yates, the guys behind Sensible Software. Wizball was published for PC by Ocean Software in 1987. The premise of Wizball is quite odd: the realm of Wizworld was deprived by all colors by an evil guy. You, as the ... -
1998 in PC gaming: Dune 2000, Axis and Allies, Railroad Tycoon 2
24th April 2021action, puzzle, strategy20 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&... -
Relaxing with Alpha Waves
10th April 2021actionAlpha Waves was the ultimate relaxing experience for PC. As a platform game, Alpha Waves it's an ok game; not bad, not very good, but if you consider the whole relaxing experience, it's worth a try. Alpha Waves stands the test of time, after all these years it's still fairly ... -
Delivering papers as a digital paperboy
3rd April 2021actionPaperboy was an unusual 1985 arcade hit developed by Atari, later published by Mindscape for DOS in 1988 and for other platforms as well. Paperboy gameplay is peculiar: you control a paperboy on a bicycle and you have to deliver newspapers to a number of houses while avoiding dogs, cars and other ... -
Zool: the ninja from the Nth dimension
20th March 2021actionZool was to Amiga what Sonic was for Sega consoles: a cool protagonist (a ninja of the Nth dimension!) for a high adrenaline action platformer. Zool was designed by George Allen and published by Gremlin in 1992 and it was an instant success. It was ported for many platforms, DOS included, ... -
What was your favourite classic arcade game?
14th November 2020actionEveryone 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 ... -
Rampage: monsters VS buildings
24th October 2020actionAs 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?
19th September 2020actionFighting 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 ... -
The worst games based on movies
28th March 2020actionMovies 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 ... -
Commander Keen: side-scrolling platformers
22nd February 2020actionIn the 90's PCs weren't exactly popular as a gaming system for platform games. The whole Commander Keen series was an exception. Created by a trio of talented designers (John Carmack, John Romero and Tom Hall), Commander Keen games - side scrolling platformers - contributed to put PCs under the ... -
Death Sword (AKA Barbarian): the art of fighting slowly
21st December 2019actionDeath Sword (also known as Barbarian in Europe), is a fighting game developed by Palace Software, set in a fantasy world full of huge sword-wielding barbarians. Compared to modern brawlers, Death Sword gameplay may seem slow, but at the time it was considered adequate. Instead of rushing into multiple chain ... -
A niche genre: Metroidvania
23rd November 2019action, adventureMetroidvania is a made up word born from the merge of two game series titles: Metroid and Castlevania. Both games share gameplay and design elements that defines the genre. Metroidvania games are platform games featuring a game world that is freely explorable. Certain areas can be accessed only with player ... -
From the arcades: coin-operated conversions
24th September 2019actionThere was a time when coin-operated games were constantly being converted for home systems. Now coin-ops are really difficult to find and everyone prefer playing from home, online or offline, without the hassle of driving/walking to an arcade and lose coin after coin into those hellish money-eating machines. I ... -
Action games: Platoon, Moonwalker, TekWar, Strider and more
30th August 2019actionFrom time to time I browse the Abandonware DOS database looking for not very popular games that need an update. Here are some action games (platformers, shooters, sports games) I just updated with new content.Tag Team WrestlingSports / Action - Developed by Technos Japan - Published by Data East in 1996 ... -
The Underdogs on Abandonware DOS
11th April 2019actionNo, 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 ... -
It's winter time! Snow, Santas and trains
22nd December 2018action, sportsChristmas is coming and I decided to add a few games in theme with the holiday season. Winter, Christmas, snow... every ingredient that makes "winter time" is present in the following games. A few of them are special editions of games already published (Skyroads, Jetpack). Transarctica is a peculiar one; ... -
Dizzy, by the Oliver Twins
20th October 2018action, adventureEvery gaming platform has its video game mascotte: Mario, Sonic, etc. Codemasters came up with their own character: an egg shaped... thing... called Dizzy. This strange fellow was the protagonist of a series of action adventure games on Spectrum, C64 and many other systems, PC included. Here are some Dizzy ...