Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Death and rebirth of 3D Dungeon Crawlers

Dungeon crawling was the main purpose in the first CRPG (Computer Role-Playing Game) ever to came out on a computer. The first CRPGs were a sort of early roguelikes back then, and by "back then" I'm talking decades ago. Anyway... after a few years, thanks to the capabilities of the ...

RPG oldie: Ultima 7 Part 2 - The Serpent Isle

I remember the moment I started playing Ultima 7 Part 2. I had The Black Gate still in my mind: I loved it, and I wanted something similar. After a few weeks (or months?) I finished Serpent Isle and I was a bit disappointed. Sure, it's a wonderful Ultima game, but it ...

Retro underdog: Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol

Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol is fantasy RPG game released in 1995 for Windows 3.x, but it runs flawlessy even Windows XP (see this faq if you want to play Mordor in a virtual machine). Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol is a mix of first-person and top-down perspective dungeon crawler; ...

Developer spotlight: Origin

Origin Systems was founded in 1983 by one of the most popular game designers of all time: Richard Garriott. The most notable games of Origin Systems are the RPGs belonging to the Ultima series: Ultima from I to IX, Ultima Online, Martian Dreams and Savage Empire. Let's not forget the entire ...

Spotlight: the Megatraveller series

Megatraveller games are space sci-fi RPGs based on the pen and paper RPG Traveller. Both games features: space exploration, planetary exploration, space combat, trading, interaction with NPCs.Neither Megatraveller games received critical acclaim. Both games were reviewed on many video games magazines; some liked them, some not.A third ...

Abandonware spotlight: Ravenloft: Stone Prophet

Ravenloft: Stone Prophet is a fantasy RPG set in the egyptian Ravenloft campaign that uses the Advanced Dungeons & Dragon ruleset. It's the sequel to Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession and uses the same first person real-time 3d engine. Stone Prophet was developed by DreamForge Entertainment and published by SSI in 1995.

The Britannia's Elite Gargoyle Crime Force

We all love Ultima VII: The Black Gate (well, I love it and you should too!) and it's not uncommon to find other people who committed themselves to some kind of worship on the web.One in particular named Nakar, wrote a whole report/guide of his adventures in the ...

Rogueliker and the new ADOM: videos from a roguelike fan

I'm sure many of you old fashioned gamers know what a roguelike is. Rogue, ADOM, Angband, NetHack are some of the classic roguelikes we love to play every now and then. There's even a bunch of them here on AbandonwareDOS.ADOM Recently, Thomas Biskup & Team ADOM released on Steam ...

Retro underdog RPG: Albion

Albion is an old DOS science fiction top-down perspective RPG developed by Blue Byte Studio in 1995 from an original idea by Erik Simon. Albion features a science fiction setting that incorporates traditional fantasy elements.

A classic roguelike: Angband

Angband is a classic roguelike still under active developement that spawned a plethora of variants (more than sixty!). If you like dungeon crawling and you don't mind complex ASCII games, try it now!

Spotlight: games based on a TV series

Today, we're used to high quality TV series such as Game of Thrones, Daredevil, Madmen. This level of writing wasn't always the top priority of the producers of TV series aired a few decades ago. Anyway, lot of us old guys remember fondly series like The A-Team, Miami Vice and, ...

Retro underdog: Aleshar World of Ice

Aleshar World of Ice is an old top-down perspective RPG game released for DOS in 1997, designed by Ossi Honkanen. Aleshar is an open world (sort of), fantasy RPG set in a world covered with ice and snow.

20 years ago in retro gaming: Menzoberranzan

Menzoberranzan is an abandoned DOS fantasy first person perspective RPG developed by DreamForge Intertainment in 1994 from an original idea by John McGirk. Menzoberranzan setting is based on the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaing setting. Menzoberranzan gameplay is party-based and class-based.Publisher: SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.Developer: ...

Text-only games: roguelikes and interactive fiction

In the past, lots of home computer games (PC, C64, Speccy, etc.) used ascii characters (simple text) to represent the game world, the interface... well, everything on screen. These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated now and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics ...