Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception

According to Infocom, the game is designed for the 13 to 19 year old market and we agree. It could also be used to introduce younger kids into role-playing on the computer. BattleTech is made to be solved in about 35 hours, but it can easily be finished in around 20. It depends on ...

Hired Guns: a sci-fi RPG

Hired Guns is an abandoned game developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis in 1993 for DOS and Amiga platforms. Hired Guns is a sci-fi RPG in which you control four mercenaries in four individual simultaneous first person sub-screens tasked with destroying all the bad guys from a single planet.

Amberstar: an old-school RPG

Amberstar is an old school RPG very similar to Ultima 6 that uses a top-down view for interiors and small locations and a first person pseudo 3D view for everything else. Unfortunately, the sequel (called Ambermoon) was available for Amiga only and no version existed for DOS or Windows.

Jagged Alliance 2: like X-Com in South America

I'm a fan of the original X-COM. I think it's one of the best turn-based tactics games ever released for DOS. Unfortunately, games like X-COM are not many. Jagged Alliance 2 has a similar tactical component: you give turn-based orders to a team of mercenaries, mission after mission. There's no management ...

Retro RPG spotlight: Bloodwych

Bloodwych is an abandoned RPG set in the fantasy world of Trazere. Two players can play at the same time in split screen mode, a feature that was unusual at the time, especially for an RPG. Bloodwych was released in 1989 by Image Works for DOS, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ...

The Aethra Chronicles Volume One: Celystra's Bane

The Aethra Chronicles is not a well know RPG, but it deserves some praise. It was developed by only one person (Micheal Lawrence) and, as the title implies, was intended to be the first volume of a saga. Unfortunately, volume two and three were never made. For a shareware game, ...

The best first-person party-based RPGs according to you

Party-based role-playing games with a first person perspective became popular after the release of Dungeon Master in 1989. Before Dungeon Master only a handful RPGs used first-person as a point of view, the Bard's Tale and Wizardry series among others.Dungeon Master managed to create a very neat user interface without ...

The beginning of Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is a first-person 3D RPG set in the Ultima universe created by Richard Garriott. Ultima Underworld was designed by Paul Neurath, developed by Blue Sky Productions and released by Origin Systems in 1992. It was followed by Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds.More info about ...

A classic roguelike: Linley's Dungeon Crawl

Dungeon Crawl (also known as Linley's Dungeon Crawl from the name of the original programmer: Linley Henzell) is a classic roguelike: an RPG with permadeath, procedural generation and high replayability. Dungeon Crawl was released on 1997 but it's not maintained anymore. The spiritual successor of Crawl is DCCS (Dungeon Crawl Stone ...

The Origin of The Savage Empire

After the success of Ultima 6: The False Prophet, Origin decided to "create worlds" not part of the popular Ultima series using the same engine as Ultima 6. They came up with two games: The Savage Empire and Martian Dreams. The Savage Empire is set in a stone-age-like time period and features ...

Post-apocalyptic RPGs: from Wasteland to Fallout

Wasteland was an early party-based top-down RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world that filled a gap in RPG video games at the time (we're talking about the late 1980s): sci fi RPGs weren't many and post-apocalyptic ones were even less.There are two series of games that are part to ...

Amulets and Armor: a lesser known first-person CRPG

Amulets & Armor is a first-person RPG with a fantasy setting. It was developed and published as shareware for DOS by United Software Artists in 1997. Amulets & Armor became freeware in 2013. Gameplay is mission-based; the player can take up quests in any order and even complete the same quests over ...

Retro game spotlight: Ultima 7 part 2 - Serpent Isle

After the well received Ultima 7 The Black Gate, Origin decided that the new Ultima engine could be used for one more game.Enter Serpent Isle.This time the Avatar travels to a whole new land, far away from the usual Britannia. Personally, I prefer The Black Gate, but Serpent Isle ...

1994 in retro gaming: The Elder Scrolls: Arena

The Elder Scrolls: Arena is the first chapter in the popular fantasy RPG series "The Elder Scrolls" developed by Bethesda Softworks. Like the other games in the series, Arena takes place in the continent of Tamriel and allows the player to roam freely in an open world scenario.The Elder ...

RPG spotlight - Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

Ultima IV is remembered as one of the best Ultima games ever released, designed as usual by Richard Garriott. Garriott took the Ultima series to a whole new level by introducing the eight virtues: honesty, compassion, valor, justice, sacrifice, honor, spirituality, humility. Ultima IV started the trilogy known as "Age ...