Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight
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Play Archon online, in your browser
28th November 2020play onlineI always thought that Archon was the work of the mind of a genius game designer. Archon it's a clever and simple idea that proves to be really entertaining. Take chess, add action-arcade battles when two pieces landing on the same square, spice it up with some fantasy flavor and ... -
The Magic Candle series: almost like Ultima
21st November 2020RPGThe Magic Candle is a series of old school RPGs developed by Mindcraft much like Ultima. You control a party of adventurers in a top-down perspective environment. You can explore towns, fight monsters, talk to people, manage your inventory and even get someone of your party to work for a ... -
What was your favourite classic arcade game?
14th November 2020actionEveryone knows what "classic arcade" means. And everyone should know what the most popular and loved classic arcade games are (or, should I say "were"?). Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders are perhaps the most iconic classics in the early history of video gaming. If you're a true retro-gamer you ... -
GDC Spotlight Awards - 1997
7th November 2020top games and awardsIn 1997 Princess Diana died in a car crash, Hong Kong returned under China rule and the stock markets crashed (again). The first Harry Potter book is published in United Kingdom, scientists cloned the first sheep (Dolly) and Microsoft released Interet Explorer 4 (yes, four).Cinemas were full of people watching Titanic, ... -
Lure of the Temptress: the first game made with the Virtual Theatre engine
31st October 2020adventureLure of the Temptress is an DOS fantasy adventure game, developed by Revolution Software, designed by Dave Cummins and published by Virgin Interactive in 1992. It's available for download. Lure of the Temptress was the first game to use the Virtual Theatre engine, also developed by Revolution Software. -
Rampage: monsters VS buildings
24th October 2020actionAs a kid, I remember spending hours at the bar down the road playing at Rampage as Lizzie. Destroying buildings and eating tasty humans was one of my favourite past-times. It's surprising that the coin-op conversion of Rampage for DOS ended up as a nice game. Granted it's not the ... -
Heimdall: an RPG with a norse mythology setting
10th October 2020RPG"This PC Incarnation of Heimdall is every bit as good as its Amiga cousin, and also runs slightly faster. You're not just playing an adventure, you're experiencing a bridge between game genres, and the transition is a very easy one. Everything about the game is excellent, and even if ... -
Collector's info: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2nd October 2020adventure, big box PC gamesInfocom interactive fiction games are fondly remembered for their quality, but also for the sheer number of items contained in each original big box. They also got a name for them: "feelies".The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a text adventure based on the Douglas Adams novel by the same ... -
Jagged Alliance 2: squad tactics at its best
26th September 2020strategyI'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 ... -
What was your favourite fighting game?
19th September 2020actionFighting games (or VS fighting), is a genre that appeals quite a wide range of gamers.Fighting games involves hand-to-hand fighting against a single opponent for the whole duration of a match. A distinctive trait of fighting games are special attacks, i.e. combinations of graphically striking moves which enhance ... -
CODiE Awards 2000: Half-Life, Links, Pharaoh
12th September 2020top games and awardsThe year 2000 brought one classic to the PC video gaming world, still remembered today: Half-Life. That wasn't the only game deserving an award, but it's undeniable that Half-Life was a milestone not only in first-person shooters, but also in the whole history of PC gaming.In history, we all woke ... -
Italian videogames in the 90s
5th September 2020adventure, racing, sportsItaly wasn't a prolific nation if you think about video games in the golden age of personal computers. There were a few valid software houses (Simulmondo, Milestone, Trecision, etc.) but they all disappeared leaving behind lots of mediocre games. Only a few of them are worth playing, but that doesn't ... -
Retro company spotlight: Strategic Simulations Inc.
29th August 2020RPG, strategySSI (Strategic Simulations Inc.) was one of the most prolific game companies of the 80s and the 90s. SSI was founded in 1979 and developed and/or published more than one hundred games. SSI was popular among video games players for two things: wargames and RPG goldbox games.Strategy games developed ... -
Electronic Gaming Monthly Game of the Year awards
22nd August 2020top games and awardsElectronic Gaming Monthly is a video game magazine founded in 1988 (a long time ago!). Amazingly, it's still alive and well, in digital form. Each year, the editors of Electronic Gaming Monthly chose a Game of the Year among games realeased for almost every system.Double Dragon 1988for Arcade, NES, SMSGhouls ... -
Pharaoh: city building in ancient Egypt
15th August 2020simulationPharaoh is a city building strategy game that is part of a group of games that uses the same interface and the same gameplay style: Pharaoh, the Caesar series and Zeus. Here's a couple of excerpt from reviews of old video game magazines. "Controlling all the aspects of civilization can ... -
What is your favourite dungeon crawler?
31st July 2020RPGDungeon crawlers are RPGs in which the player has to explore one or more dungeons (or similar non-open world environments), fight hordes of cunning monsters, looting treasure, gain experience and levels and so on. Usually, dungeon crawlers have simple storylines and a linear progression. A lot of rogue-likes can be ... -
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2: the perfect sim?
25th July 2020simulationThis is one of the favourite games of my childhood. Scrap that, it's one of my favourite games at all. There's something in the micromanagement of an amusement park, in the designing of a new roller coaster, that glued me for hours on my chair in front of the computer. ... -
Duke Nukem 3D: the duke is back
11th July 2020shooterI have to admit something to you all. I liked Duke Nukem 3D more than Doom. There, I said it. I know some of your consider this an heresy, but that's the truth. Doom was a wonderful game, but Duke Nukem 3D had a strange appeal on me. I wasn't ... -
CODiE Awards 1999: Starcraft, Unreal, Lego Loco
4th July 2020top games and awardsIn 1999 we surpassed 6 billion inhabitants in the whole world. In Europe, the new currency - called EURO - replaces national currencies. In the USA, Napster is released, and if you don't remember it, go looking for it on wikipedia! Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 5 (five!).Movies released in 1999: Star Wars: The ... -
The first of the King's Quests
28th June 2020adventureKing's Quest: Quest for the Crown is the first game in the popular series of King's Quest. Developed by Sierra On-line, King's Quest is an early adventure game (one of the first animated adventures), a step up from the classic graphical interactive fiction of the time. The player can use ...