Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

GameSpy's 25 Favorite PC Games of the '90s

"The 1990s were landmark years for PC gaming, giving rise to three of the most deeply ingrained genres on the platform, and delivering memorable classics in the role-playing and adventure genres that the PC had long been known for. To celebrate this monumental decade we've put together some reflections ...

The shareware business model

Shareware is a type of software distribution model that allows users to try a program before purchasing it. It's a marketing strategy and distribution method that was particularly popular in the early days of personal computing, primarily during the 1980s and 1990s.Shareware games were released for free with limited ...

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 ...

Quarantine: blood on the road

Quarantine is a first-person shooter / driving game hybrid set in a dark dystopian futuristic city where the player drives around in a taxi cab, picking up passengers and killing everyone else. If you loved Carmageddon, you will also like Quarantine. Stay away if you don't like gratuitous violence, gore and ...

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 ...

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 ...

Stunt Car Racer: falling off the track

I'm not a big fan of racing games, this one though catched my attention. I owned the original big box game for C64 and to this day I can't remember why I bought it. Anyway, I found Stunt Car Racer very engaging (and very difficult). The suspended tracks and the ...

Grand Theft Auto: the beginning

In Grand theft auto the player takes the role of a criminal who can freely roam around the city (Liberty City) completing tasks for the local mobs: stealing cars, killing pedestrians, all of it while avoiding the police and the army. The freedom of gameplay and the "I'm the bad ...

Italian videogames in the 90s

Italy 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 ...

Hard Drivin' in vector graphics

"Hard Drivin', a fast moving, solid-filled vector graphic racing game, gave you the chance to compete against the clock on two separate tracks: a speed track and a stunt track. And for those skilled enough to get a good enough time on either of these, there was a championship ...

Unconventional racing games

Racing games is a genre loved by many and ignored by others. Me, I was never a huge fan of racing games. I used to play Super Speed at the arcades long ago, but I never quite grew fond of Formula 1 simulations or Outrun-like games. In time, I completely stopped ...

Cars: racing and building vehicles on wheels

I just added a bunch of car-racing games, including a couple of top-down fixed-screen ones that I always liked. It seems there were a lot of racing games being published back in the nineties that I couldn't remember, but I've never been interested in cars anyway. Actually, one of them ...

Racing everywhere

Racing games are all about arriving first in a racing competition. If you think "racing" youìre probably thinking about fast cars. Not every video game about racing was about Formula 1 or Nascar, some of them were... well... unconventional. Take BC Racers for example, or Yacht Racing Simulator. BC ...

Retro game spotlight: Stunts

Stunts is a car racing (or... should I say car crashing?) simulator focused on, well, stunt tracks. Stunts was developed by Distinctive Software in 1990 and i gained a cult following over the years. Did I mention that you can design your tracks with a track editor?

Play Micro Machines in your browser

Micro Machines was one of the most successful line of toys of the 80s and the 90s. Micro Machines are cute toy cars the size of a pencil sharpener. There's a TON of them, and children of the time loved to collect them all. Actually, cars weren't the only vehicle ...