Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

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 ...

GOG Black Friday sale

Good Old Games is hosting a Black Friday sale. It's call Black Friday, but it lasts a whole week! And there's bundles! Strategy bundle, RPG bundle, kinky bundle (...) build your own bundle (Team17, Microids, etc.). I think I'm going to buy one of the old Heroes of Might and Magic ...

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 ...

A game to play on Christmas day: Holiday Lemmings

Lemmings was one of the most iconic puzzle games ever made. It was also one of the most inventive. The idea behind those tiny furred punk suicidal rodents is truly a stroke of genius. Not surprisingly, after the huge success of the first game a lot of sequels followed. Holiday ...

GDC Spotlight Awards - 1998

The Spotlight Awards was a video game awards event hosted in the 1990s at the GDC (Games Developers Conference) that covered a lot of gaming platforms.The best video games for 1998 according to the Spotlight awards were:Age of Empires Annual Achievement Award for Game Design and DevelopmentBlade Runner Best ...

Bureaucracy: interactive fiction

Bureaucracy is an abandoned text-adventure game designed by Douglas Adams (yes, the writer of The Hitchhiker Guide of the Galaxy), developed and published by Infocom in 1987. Bureaucracy is a peculiar interactive fiction; the game challenges you to solve frustrating bureaucratic problems in a world populated by strange characters. Game info ...

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 ...

Point & click: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a graphical point and click adventure game created by LucasArts and published in 1992, based on the popular movie character. As the famous archaeologist Indiana Jones, you will travel the world searching for the mythical land of Atlantis. Fate of Atlantis is the ...

Free Enterprise: build your small business from the ground up

Dehumanizing offices? Check. Depressing environment? Check. No windows in the whole place? Check. Good, I'm ready to exploit my workers and become great entrepreneur. All of this thanks to Free Enterprise, a simulation for Windows by Tsunami Media, published in 1996.More info:Genres: simulation, business simulationSystem: Windows ...

Road Rash: violent motorcycle racing

Road Rash is an abandoned motorcycle racing game developed by Papyrus Design Group and released by Electronic Arts in 1996. Road Rash runs on Windows XP/98/95 but was also published for Amiga, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, 3DO, Game Gear, PlayStation, Saturn, Game Boy. In Road Rash you're a motorcycle racer ...

Electronic Games Arcade Awards: The best of 1980

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 ...

Maniac Mansion Deluxe: a remake

Maniac 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 ...

Electronic Games Arcade Awards - 1982

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. ...

X-COM Apocalypse: a different X-COM

X-COM: Apocalypse is the third installment of the very popular X-COM franchise. After X-COM: Ufo Defence and Terror From the Deep, fans expected another smash hit. Apocalypse is quite different under many aspects, from gameplay to aesthetics. X-COM Apocalypse was designed by Julian Gollop (the same designer that brought the ...

Retro adventure: Future Wars Adventure in Time

"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 ...

The first Civilization

I clearly remember the first time I played Civilization. It was, perhaps, the first time I played a 4X game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate). It took me a fair amount of time to learn the mechanics, understand the pace of the game, the gameplay and to finally beat the computer ...

Hooligans: one of the most controversial games ever released

Apparently, Hooligans is one of the most controversial games ever made. I say apparently simply because I've never played Hooligans back then. A few weeks ago I spent half an hour playing the tutorial mission and I have to admit that I felt uncomfortable walking around thrashing benches and beating ...

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, ...

Daggerfall: the second chapter of the Elder Scrolls

The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall is an old school first-person 3D RPG developed by Bethesda Softworks and released in 1996 for DOS. Daggerfall is the second chapter in The Elder Scrolls Series. The open world gameplay, the procedural generation of dungeons and the freedom of exploring and taking on the quests at ...