Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight
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Maniac Mansion Deluxe: a remake
10th September 2022adventure, remakes and sequelsManiac Mansion Deluxe is the unofficial sequel to the acclaimed point & click adventure game released by LucasFilm in 1987. Maniac Mansion Deluxe it's a fan-made adventure developed by LucasFans Games and released in 2004 and it's a complete remake of Maniac Mansion in every aspect, developed using the Adventure Game Studio ... -
Retro adventure: Future Wars Adventure in Time
20th August 2022adventure"The look and gameplay of Future Wars owes a lot to the Sierra On-Line style of arcade adventure. But, where the Sierra games are simple and quite accessible, Future Wars is complex and hard to get into. I'd say curiosity is probably the main motivating force when playing this ... -
It Came From The Desert: giant ants from the 50s
5th July 2022action, adventureIt Came from the Desert is an abandonware action-adventure game developed by Cinemaware and released in 1990 for PC (DOS) and Amiga. It Came From the Desert is an action-adventure game with a peculiar flavor: it's set in the 50s, in the USA, and it's based on those old monster movies ... -
Simon The Sorcerer: point and click humor
25th June 2022adventureSimon the Sorcerer is adventure game designed by Simon Woodroffe, developed and published by Adventure Soft and released in 1993. Often overlooked, Simon The Sorcerer is one of the finest point & click adventure games ever designed for DOS. In an era dominated by LucasFilm Games (later renamed LucasArts) and Sierra, ... -
Space Questing with Sierra On-Line
21st May 2022adventureSpace 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 (see GOG) and that's why almost all Sierra games on Abandonware DOS aren't available for download.The ... -
The Zork universe: an underground empire
7th May 2022adventureZork is one of the most popular text-adventures and one of the first interactive fiction games ever created. The first Zork was developed in the seventies and ported on various platform by Infocom in the early 80s. Infocom was one of the most prolific developers of text-adventures for home ... -
Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire - Adventure and RPG mixed
5th March 2022adventure, RPGQuest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire is a the second chapter in the Quest for Glory series. Trial by Fire is an adventure game with RPG elements (at the very start the player must choose a class from the three available: fighter, wizard, thief) set in a fantasy setting inspired ... -
Loom: a fantasy adventure by Lucasfilm
29th January 2022adventureLoom is one of the first graphic adventures released by Lucasfilm Games. It was designed by Brian Moriarty and it follows a fantasy theme. There's no inventory and it lacks classic commands like "look", "take", etc. You can play tunes using a combination of notes in order to interact with ... -
Cadaver and Cadaver: The Payoff
20th November 2021action, adventureCadaver (and the expansion Cadaver: The Payoff) is a blend of adventure and platform game developed by Bitmap Brothers. The gameplay reminds me of the glorious Head over Heels with a few differences: a fantasy setting, an inventory and the fact that you can die... and I died a lot ... -
Cruise for a Corpse: crime and mystery on a ship
23rd October 2021adventureCruise for a Corpse is a point and click adventure game developed by Delphine Software, the same guys behind Flashback, Operation Stealth and Future Wars.Cruise for a Corpse borrows heavily from Agatha Christie style and it's entirely set on a single cruise ship. If you like detective stories, go ... -
Retro game spotlight: Legend of Kyrandia (1992)
18th September 2021adventureLegend of Kyrandia is the first installment of the series of the same name. Kyrandia is a classic point & click adventure game set in a fantasy world; it was developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin in 1992.There are different versions of the original Legend of Kyrandia. One ... -
Developer spotlight: Magnetic Scrolls
11th September 2021adventureMagnetic Scrolls was a British video game company active between 1984 and 1992. It was one of the most acclaimed interactive fiction developers of the 1980s and developed games such as The Pawn, Fish!, Guild of Thieves.Based In: United Kingdom United Kingdom Founded By: Anita Sinclair, Ken Gordon, Hugh Steers Established ... -
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 ... -
Games set in South America
12th June 2021adventureVideo games set in South America usually involve Inca or Aztec cultures and mythology. Typical South American settings and cliches are: the jungle, the Amazon, ancient temples, guerrilla warfare, petty dictators, etc.Here's a few of them:Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures Windows 3.x 1996 LucasArts Flight of the ... -
Telarium: early interactive fiction
5th June 2021adventureTelarium was known for interactive fiction adventure games with graphics. Their adventure games were almost all based on novels such as Farenheit 451 and Rendez Vous With Rama. Telarium often cooperated with the authors of those books.Based in: U.S.A. Established in: 1984 Closed in: 1987 gamegenrereleasedAmazonadventure1984Dragon Worldadventure1984Farenheit 451... -
Plan 9 From Outer Space: inspired by a B movie
29th May 2021adventure"There was so much potential for a decent game within Plan 9's dire plot and general naffness that the game seems a real cop-out. I'm a real fan of all those awful B-movies, and likes of The Creature From The Black Lagoon and King Kong are just gagging for ... -
The Infocom InfoComics
8th January 2021adventureInfoComics was an engine developed by Infocom, used for a series of adventure games that today would be described as visual novels (something like non-interactive comics). InfoComics weren't much popular and, apparently, were one of the causes that lead to Infocom demise. Infocom published four games based on the Infocomics ... -
Lure of the Temptress: the first game made with the Virtual Theatre engine
31st October 2020adventureLure 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. -
Italian videogames in the 90s
5th September 2020adventure, racing, sportsItaly 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 ... -
Graphic adventures with a text parser
5th June 2020adventureThere'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 ...