Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Be a (simulated) manager: trade, trade, trade

The simulations genre (I'm not talking about vehicle simulations) wasn't that popular until SimCity and Populous came along. Both games started two genres: city building and god games.With this update I'm adding a different type of simulation: trading sims. I'm not sure of the appeal of trading in a ...

Puzzles: word games, sokoban, action puzzles

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 ...

To the arcades! Abandoned coin-op conversions

No, I'm not talking about the actual place where you can play coin-ops, and I don't even know if such places still exist. I'm talking about very old games that can be defined as "arcades".Jumpman Lives! is a classic and need no presentation. Pango is a rip-off (homage?) to ...

Retro spotlight: Lands of Lore, The Throne of Chaos

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos is a fantasy RPG published in 1993, very similar to other dungeon crawlers like EotB or Dungeon Master. Lands of Lore was developed by Westwood Studios who wanted to start a new franchise after the success of the Eye of the Beholder series.

Pew pew! Boom boom!

Pew pew! Boom! Pew pew pew! Crash! I have to admit... I really don't know what to write about shoot'em ups. Well, let's try.Here's a bunch of (mostly) vertical scrolling shoot'em ups: shoot enemies, avoid more enemies, reach the end of each level, meet the boss.There's really not ...

More adventure games: ecology, horror, comedy...

I added every possible Sierra Online adventure to the Abandonware DOS database... and then I found out that I missed something: EcoQuest. I never liked the EcoQuest series, I never even really played them much, but they deserve a place on Abandonware DOS.  I also missed Last Half of ...

CODiE Awards: 1988

In 1988 I was a proud owner of a Commodore 64. A couple of years later I bought an Amiga, but 1988 I was still playing Ultima 5 on 5 1/4 disks. I didn't know a thing about PCs, even less about PC gaming. Older people I knew at the time used PCs to work on ...

Racing everywhere

Racing games are all about arriving first in a racing competition. If you think "racing" youìre probably thinking about fast cars. Not every video game about racing was about Formula 1 or Nascar, some of them were... well... unconventional. Take BC Racers for example, or Yacht Racing Simulator. BC ...

Nice movies and shitty games

In the 80s and the 90s we all saw a lot of good blockbuster movies come out. Some of them were good, some of them were bad. Unfortunately, most of video games based on movies (called 'tie-in') were really bad. Developers tried to put everything they could in those games ...

Paper and cloth maps from the past

Many old games published during an age of PC video gaming where digital distribution was still a dream of some publishers, came in physical boxes full of various goodies.A few enlightened publishers gifted (well, we paid...) us players with gorgoeus maps. RPG was perhaps the genre that most of ...

A pint of point and click and a barrel of interactive fiction

After RPGs, a genre that is really loved among nostalgic DOS and Windows PC gamers is adventure. And by adventure I mean interactive fiction, point & click, etc. Unfortunately, the best ones are far from being abandoned: I'm talking about LucasArts and Sierra adventures aren't abandonware. From time to time ...

RPGs from the 80s and the 90s

Dear DOS gamers, you seem to particularly like RPGs, so I started looking for old RPGs I missed in the past updates. It turns out that there's A LOT (and I mean A LOT) of lesser known (and often ugly, unplayable, forgettable) role playing games developed for DOS. Without further ...

Strategy across the ages

It's time to update Abandonware DOS with a few more strategy games (you seem to like the genre). From the ancient past to the far future, not forgetting the fantasy genre, here are some turn-based strategy games to download and play. Fantasy EmpiresThe Great War: 1914 - 1918Pacific GeneralMech Brigade

Platforms, arcades and Mario

Yes, you read it right: Mario. I'm obviously referring to the beloved Italian plumber, protagonist of many Nintendo games. On PC, Mario is seldom seen; he appears almost exclusively in fan-made games or indie remakes. Mario Bros VGA, Super Mariio Bros (with two 'i') are two examples of fan-made remakes. ...

Obscure RPGs (almost) no one ever heard of

The most loved RPGs from the PC era are known to everyone: the Ultima series, the Might & Magic series, Wizardry, etc. There were also a lot of minor and sometimes unsuccessful RPGs that made it on the shelves but almost never appeared on video games magazines. Have you every ...