Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Wargaming everywhere

As I add to Abandonware DOS every game I can think of, week after week, I get increasingly astonished by the sheer number of wargames available back in the day. I had no idea that wargaming was so popular in the 80s and the early 90s.With this update I ...

Strategy in the far east: Japan, China, the Pacific

I'm a fan of turn-based strategy games, but I have to admit I've never played KOEI games. KOEI was a Japanese company founded in 1978 (!) known for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition series. Romance of the Three Kingdoms wasn't the only game that deserve some praise. With ...

Solving murders and simulating detectives

Pure and simple detective stories are hard to find in video gaming today. Everyone goes for fantasy, sci-fi, horror, but the good old murder to solve is not so popular. Back in the 90s (or the 80s) you could play some adventure games based on a detective story. There was ...

Text only gaming: it's not always about interactive fiction

Text only games are a curious phenomenon. Unlike other kind of old games, they survived to this day in one form or the other. Maybe that's because it doesn't take a huge team to develop a game completely (or partially) devoid of graphics. When I say text-only games, some of ...

Memories from Populous: play god in your browser

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 ...

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

Different kinds of strategy games

More games have been uploaded. Two turn-based tactics games, one wargame, one real time strategy, a real time tactics game and, the best of them all (probably) a turn based tactics game from Julian Gollop, the designer of one of the most loved PC games of all time: X-Com: Enemy ...

Board games!

Here's a few DOS board games to play with your family or friends (if you still have a PC with MSDOS installed). Monopoly, Othello and Backgammon are known to everyone from age 5 to age 99. Settlers of Catan is more recent, but pretty popular. Battle of Atlantis... I don't think anyone ...

Have you ever played Heroes of Might and Magic?

Have you ever played Heroes of Might and Magic? I bet you did play one of the more recent sequels, right? Heroes of Might and Magic began as a strategy-tactical son of the marvellous Might and Magic RPG series and (almost) never changed. The fact that the last one is ...

Keyword: god games (it's good to be god)

In the so called god games, the player takes the role of a divine entity (or something similar). Gameplay involves controlling people, units or even the environment on a large scale. God games usually show some artificial intelligence in the form of autonomous NPCs.

Abandonware spotlight: Defender of the Crown

Lalallala, lalallala, la la la la la lallala. Well, that's how I remember the music of Defender of the Crown, one of the most peculiar games developed by Cinemaware (also their first one!). Set in medieval England, Defender of the Crown was a mix of strategy and action. You ...

Space Hulk: a board game classic

Space Hulk is a strategy game based on the board game of the same name designed by Games Workshop, the company behind the popular Warhammer 40000 franchise. Take your squad of Space Marines and go kill some alien scum!

20 years ago in retro gaming: Master of Magic

Master of Magic is a turn based 4x strategy game developed by SimTex and published by the well know 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 ...

Spotlight: 4x strategy games

4x is a well known strategy genre acronym that stands for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate. The player controls a whole empire and is tasked with managing resources and technical developments (eXploit), expanding their domains with their military (eXplore and eXpand), and fight against computer A.I. factions or other ...