Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Retro racing: Grand Prix 2 by Geoff Crammond

Grand Prix 2 is an abandoned Formula 1 racing game designed by Geoff Crammond and published by MicroProse Software in 1995 for DOS. Grand Prix 2 is the sequel to Formula One Grand Prix and was a one-man project (which was uncommon at the time). Grand Prix 2 was essentially an accurate simulation of ...

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 ...

From the arcades: Turbo OutRun

Turbo OutRun is an abandoned DOS action racing game set in North America, developed and published by Sega in 1990. Turbo OutRun is a conversion from the arcade classic of the same name and it's the sequel of the popular OutRun. The OutRun games are regarded as iconic and representative of ...

The Terminator: Future Shock

The Terminator: Future Shock is an abandoned science fiction first-person shooter game based on the popular Terminator movies franchise, set in a dystopian world where machines has taken over the Earth. The Terminator: Future Shock was developed by Bethesda Softworks and released in 1995 for DOS.Game details Genres: shooter,&...

Cabal: an abandoned shooting gallery game

Cabal is an abandoned arcade conversion of a popular shooter game set in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Cabal was developed by TAD Corporation and released by Capcom in 1989 for DOS.Zero Magazine (issue 06) wrote: "The idea in not only to shoot everything that moves but also most of ...

Civilization 2: an improved sequel

Civilization 2, later renamed Sid Meier's Civilization II, is a turn based 4X strategy game developed and published by MicroProse in 1996. The gameplay is similar to the first Civilization, many aspects were improved and new features were introduced: a new isometric perspective, hit points for units, new civilizations, new wonders of ...

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 ...

Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire - Adventure and RPG mixed

Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire is a the second chapter in the Quest for Glory series. Trial by Fire is an adventure game with RPG elements (at the very start the player must choose a class from the three available: fighter, wizard, thief) set in a fantasy setting inspired ...

X-COM: Terror from the Deep - The sequel

X-COM: Terror from the Deep is a DOS science fiction tactical strategy game, the sequel of one of the most popular DOS games in history X-COM Ufo Defense. Terror from the Deep was designed by Stephen Gross (the X-COM original being designed by Julian Gollop) and was published by MicroProse ...

Ascendancy: 4X turn-based strategy game

Ascendancy is a science fiction themed turn-based strategy game developed by The Logic Factory and released in 1995 for DOS. Ascendancy is a classic 4X game (eXpand, eXplore, eXploit, eXterminate), similar to Master of Orion, yet with a few differences such as a technology tree.More info about Ascendancy:Genres: strategy, 4...

Retro game spotlight: The Lost Vikings

I'm not a fan of platformers. I love RPGs, I enjoyed many point & click adventures, I like most strategy games, but I never got excited while playing a platform game. Lost Viking is different. I LOVED the concept of controlling three different vikings in order to solve riddles and ...

Loom: a fantasy adventure by Lucasfilm

Loom is one of the first graphic adventures released by Lucasfilm Games. It was designed by Brian Moriarty and it follows a fantasy theme. There's no inventory and it lacks classic commands like "look", "take", etc. You can play tunes using a combination of notes in order to interact with ...

Bomb Jack: an arcade classic

Bomb Jack is a classic arcade platform game developed and published by Tecmo in 1984. The goal of the game is to collect bombs while avoiding enemies; the whole game takes place in a fixed screen. Bomb Jack for DOS is a conversion from the arcade original version. The arcade and ...

Knight Games: medieval olympics

Olympic games were something back in the 80s and the 90s: Winter Games, Summer Games, California Games, anything-you-can-think-of games. Some imaginative developer thought that the world needed a different kind of "multisport" game and came up with he idea behind Knight Games."What Knight Games lacks is the feeling of ...

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 ...

Abandonware DOS in 2021: let's say goodbye to a not so great year

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who donated a few bucks to help me keep working on Abandonware DOS. THANK YOU, THANK YOU and again THANK YOU! I must confess that I didn't put a lot of work in implementing new features these last year. I had ...

Play Elite online: the birth of space simulations

The very first Elite was the kind of game that starts a whole genre. Space sims - I'm talking about the trade-fight-explore kind of sims - started with the creation of David Braben and Ian Bell. Games like Freelancer and EVE Online owe Elite a great deal. The Elite series ...

DOS game spotlight: Battle Chess

Chess is a niche genre in video gaming. There were lots of chess simulations: black and white very old games, licensed games from chess champions, etc. No one ever attempted to broaden the audience until Interplay published Battle Chess. I'm a chess fan (I barely remember the rules), but I ...

Hail Caesar! For the second time

Caesar 2 is many things: a simulation set in ancient roman times, a city builder, a wonderful strategy game. Caesar 2 is all of this and more: it's one of the early games developed by Impressions that set the gameplay and quality standards later implemented in old strategy games like Zeus and ...

Retro game spotlight: Fantasy General by SSI

Fantasy General is a hex-based turn-based strategy fantasy wargame set in a D&D world. The player can duel either against a computer or a human opponent or even take part in a longer campaign. There are two sides to chose from, one good and one evil (no neutral!), ...