Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Jet Set Willy: a remake worthy of the original

Jet Set Willy is a classic platform video game released for various home computers in the 1980s. It was developed by Matthew Smith and published by Software Projects for the ZX Spectrum in 1984. The game is the sequel to Manic Miner, another popular title created by Smith. The ...

Daggerfall: the second chapter of the Elder Scrolls

"At last! An RPG done right. From Bethesda this Christmas comes The Elder Scrolls: daggerfall, which is the sequel to The Elder Scrolls: Arena. For way to long RPGs have clung to antiquated design conventions. Nobody seemed prepared to try anything really new, while alleged breakthroughs like Stonekeep were ...

What is shovelware?

The term shovelware emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during a period when personal computers were becoming widespread and software publishing suddenly looked like a gold rush. Instead of carefully crafted titles, many publishers chose speed over quality, “shoveling” as much software as possible onto floppy ...

Indianapolis 500: racing classic

ACE Magazine - "If you have access to a PC or compatible, then this is one of those state-of-the-art pograms, like Bomber, that you just have to have. The vector graphics will astound you, and the speed will impress you even more. Of course 386 owners will really feel the speed ...

Syndicate soundtrack added

Syndicate is a cyberpunk-themed tactical action game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1993. The game is set in a dystopian future where corporations, called syndicates, have replaced governments, ruling the world with violence and control. Syndicate is a blend of real-time strategy and action. Players take ...

Gauntlet: warrior, wizard, valkyrie, elf

In Gauntlet, four brave souls (or just you with an overworked space bar) hack, slash, and gobble food like medieval Pac-Men. This 1986 dungeon crawler is basically a family reunion gone wrong: everyone wants treasure, no one shares health potions, and someone inevitably shouts, “Wizard needs food, badly!” at ...

CODiE Awards 1991: SimEarth, Carmen Sandiego and fairy tales

1991 was one of those years that, in hindsight, feels quietly strange for videogames. Not a fireworks display of revolutions, but a crossroads where experimentation, polish, and odd detours coexisted in equal measure. Some titles felt like natural evolutions of established ideas; others seemed to ask, “What if we ...

Master of Orion 2: the mother of 4x strategy games

"Players who love strategy games will go nuts for Master of Orion II. Its detailed play options, random encounters, multiplayer options, and customizing capabilities are everything that the hard-core veteran dreams of. Unfortunately, this same complexity of design is more than most beginners will be able to tackle without ...

It Came From The Desert: giant ants from the 50s

It Came from the Desert is an abandonware action-adventure game developed by Cinemaware and released in 1990 for PC (DOS) and Amiga. It Came From the Desert is an action-adventure game with a peculiar flavor: it's set in the 50s, in the USA, and it's based on those old monster movies ...

Starflight: classic space exploration

Starflight is a classic space exploration and role-playing video game released in 1986 by Binary Systems and published by Electronic Arts. It is known for its innovative gameplay, as well as its open-ended approach to space exploration and storytelling. The game is set in a massive, procedurally generated universe with thousands ...

For every Star Trek fan: Starfleet Command

Star Trek: Starfleet Command (1999, Windows XP) is a dream come true for anyone who memorized warp core schematics. It’s a tactical space combat simulator that rewards patience, planning, and nerves of steel. You command starships in battles that play out like chess at warp speed — every subsystem, ...

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 ...

1996 in retro gaming: from Diablo to Daggerfall

Thirty years ago — yes, 1996, the year we all discovered that 3D graphics could both amaze us and instantly melt our PCs — computer gaming had finally learned to walk, run, and occasionally trip over its own polygons. The DOS era was still hanging on, Windows 95 was flexing its new ...

FIFA Soccer 97: the best of the series?

FIFA Soccer 97 is a football video game developed and published by EA Sports as part of the FIFA series. Released in 1996 for various platforms, it was the fourth installment in the FIFA series and introduced several new features. FIFA 97 was the first in the series to use a polygonal 3D ...

From the arcades: Turbo OutRun

Zero Magazine: "On the ol' addictiveness and playability front, Turbo Outrun is absolutely brilliant. The little extras, like the turbo, make the game different from the usual racey ones and hitting turbo just as a police car reaches you, is fab. Okay, it's yet another drivey game. But it's ...