Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone is an abandoned sci-fi themed adventure game based on the popular TV series of the same name. The Twilight zone released in 1988 by First Row Software Publishing for DOS and Amiga. At it's core, The Twilight Zone is a text adventure, so you have to type in ...

Electronic Games Arcade Awards: 1983

Electronic Games was the first magazine dedicated to the video game world, published in the United States. Electronic Games ran from October 15 1981 to 1997 under different titles (Computer Entertainment, Intelligent Gamer, etc). The magazine is notable for holding the first Game of the Year Award ceremony, called (obviously) the Arcade Awards. ...

Star Crusader: space combat

Star Crusader is an abandoned science fiction first-person 3D space combat simulation, developed by Take-Two Interactive and released by GameTek in 1994 both for DOS and for Amiga platforms. During the game you will have to choose on which side you want to fight: the Gorenes or the rebels. Depending on ...

Solo Flight, by Sid Meier

Not many people know that the first games created by Sid Meier were flight simulations. Solo Flight was published by MicroProse in 1983 for Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari, and a year later, in 1984, for PC. The game takes place in the United States. As a fliying mailmain, the goal of the ...

Classic game spotlight: Laser Squad

Laser Squad is an abandoned turn-based strategy/tactical game designed by Julian Gollop (the mind behind the X-COM series). Laser Squad was developed by Target Games Limited and released by MicroLeague Multimedia in 1992 for DOS and other 8-bit systems. Laser Squad is considered as a precursor of X-COM: Ufo Defense....

John Madden Football: the first of a series

John Madden Football was the first of a series of american football sports games sponsored by the coach of the same name. The first John Madden Football is an abandoned game developed and released by Electronic Arts in 1988 for Apple II and Commodore 64 and later released for DOS (in 1989). The ...

CODiE Awards 1993: A-Train, Links 386, Wolfenstein 3-D

In 1993 the games awarded by the CODiE Awards aren't the most remembered of that decade. Looking at this meager list, the only game that stands out after all these years is Wolfenstein 3-D, which is simply the father of Doom and all the first-person shooters that came after that.1993A-Train ...

Legend Entertainment: interactive fiction

Legend was a developer who created quite a few adventure games. The first ones were interactive fiction adventures with a unique interface (Spellcasting 101, Gateway, etc.). You could type commands and read room descriptions, but you could also click on a list of verbs, a compass to move from room to ...

SimEarth: a life simulation game by Maxis

SimEarth is a simulation in which you can shape and mold a planet in almost every way you can imagine. In SimEarth our planet is simulated as a whole: life, climate, atmosphere are all aspects of a single Gaia-like Earth. SimEarth can be played in two modes: game and experimental. ...

Wayne's World: from movie to game

Wayne's World is an abandoned point and click adventure game based on the movie of the same name. In Wayne's World you control both the characters of Wayne and Garth (created by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey) in a quest to save their TV show. Wayne's World was ...

CODiE Awards 1997: Tomb Raider, Monty Python, Links

In 1997 quite a few interesting things happened around the world. Scientists cloned Dolly the sheep, Hong Kong was handed over to China by the UK, the Mars Pathfinder probe landed on... Mars. In fiction, the first book of Harry Potter was published in the UK, Titanic literally hit cinemas all ...

Gobliiins: half adventure, half puzzle game

Gobliiins is a peculiar adventure game designed by Pierre Gilhodes, developed by French company Coktel Vision and released by Sierra On-Line in 1991 for DOS, Mac, Amiga and Atari ST. In Gobliiins, you control multiple goblins and you must find a way to progress to the next area by solving typical ...

Starquake: sci-fi platformer

Starquake is a weird DOS science fiction platform game developed by Bubble Bus Software in 1988 and designed by Stephen Crow and Dave Collins. I remember it fondly... it's not punishing and it's still very much enjoyable even today, after more than two decades. Genres: action, platformSystem:&...

Canceled game: Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans

There was one time, in the mid nineties, when Blizzard was developing a point & click adventure game set in the Warcraft universe. Unfortunately the game was canceled after a few years of troubled development. The few players that were able to grab an almost working copy weren't impressed: it ...

From the arcades: Marble Madness

Marble Madness is an abandoned isometric action game designed by Mark Cerny and originally published by Atari as a successful and iconic arcade game. It was later converted for many platform in 1986 and for IBM PCs in 1987 by Atari.

CODiE Awards 1991: SimEarth, Carmen Sandiego and fairy tales

1991 was the year of a few peculiar games.SimEarth was an unusual new addition to the Sim brand (thank you Maxis). I loved SimCity and SimAnts but I could never get into SimEarth.King's Quest V was the last chapter of the popular King's Quest series. I have to ...

The Operative: No One Lives Forever

The Operative: No One Lives Forever is a first-person shooter with stealth gameplay elements, developed by Monolith Productions and released by Fox Interactive in 2000 for Windows, Mac and PS2. As Cate Archer, a spy working for a secret organization in the 60s, you have to find out who killed your ...

Baldur's Gate: the game who revitilized CRPGs

Baldur's Gate a fantasy RPG set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe which is regarded as the RPG that brought new life in a dying genre in the late 90s. Baldur's Gate was developed by BioWare and released by Black Isle Studios in 1998 for Windows, Lunux and Mac. Some of ...

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 ...

Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz

Zork Zero is a very well documented and user friendly game. Overall, it is a worthy addition to the Zork series and is, by far, the best one to date. Players who like text games will definitely love this game. Even those who don't usually like text games or are "...

Abandonware DOS in 2022: more games, more everything

Hello everyone! Another year has passed and Abandonware DOS is still here. Well, there are no reasons for this site to disappear in the vastness of the forgotten internet. I intend to go on, to endure and add more games and more content, in time. Unfortunately, server costs just went ...

The Magnetic Scrolls Collection: interactive fiction

Magnetic Scrolls was one of the finest developer companies dedicated to Interactive Fiction. The Magnetic Scrolls Collection is a trilogy of Magnenic Scrolls adventures remade using the Wonderland engine: Fish!, Corruption, The Guild of Thieves. The new window-based interface made text-adventuring easy even for gamers not used to a text-only ...

Game Critics Awards in 1998: Homeworld, Half-Life, Grim Fandango

The Game Critics Awards is a annual award event that happens just after the very popular E3 video game conference. The Game Critics Awards take place since 1998.As you can see, 1998 saw the birth of great classics for every kind of gamer: Half-Life for shooter lovers, Homeworld for RTS gamers, ...

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.

Classic adventure: Maniac Mansion

Maniac Mansion is one of the most famous point and click adventure games developed by Lucasfilm Games and designed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick. The story is a blend of old sci fi and horror b movies and the player can choose between many characters, each one with a ...

FIFA: Road to World Cup 98

FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 (also known as FIFA 98) is a football sports game developed by Electronic Arts and released in 1997 for multiple platforms including Windows, Genesis, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, SEGA Saturn, SNES. FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 is the fifth game in the FIFA Soccer series.

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 ...

From Sierra Online: Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist

Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist is a comedy point & click adventure game set in the old American West designed by Al Lowe and Josh Mandel, developed and released by Sierra On-Line in 1993 for DOS, Windows and Macintosh. Initially released on floppy, Freddy Pharkas was later re-released on CD-ROM as a ...

Witchaven: a fantasy first-person slasher

Witchaven is an abandoned fantasy first-person shooter (or "slasher", since you'll wield melee weapons) developed by Capstone and released by IntraCorp in 1995 for DOS and Windows. Witchaven includes RPG elements such as experience and leveling your character but it's primarily an action game with swords and spells.More info about ...