Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Sid Meier was a pirate

Pirates! Gold is an open world game designed by Paul Murphy, developed and released by MicroProse Software in 1993 for DOS, Windows 3.x, Mac and also Sega Genesis and Amiga CD32. Pirates! Gold is a remake of the game Pirates, created by Sid Meier in 1987. Pirates! Gold gameplay is a unique ...

GDC Spotlight Awards - 1999

The Spotlight Awards (GDC) was hosted annually by the Game Developers Conference from 1997 to 1999. Its focus was on the video and computer game industry. The Spotlight awards took a lot of gaming platforms into consideration, but 1999 awarded many PC games.The best video games for 1999 according to the Spotlight ...

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is an abandoned action game set in South America designed by John Spinale, developed and released by Activision in 1995. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure was published for Windows, Game Boy Advance, Genesis, Jaguar, etc. The Mayan Adventure is part of the Pitfall franchise that began in 1982 with ...

Grand Theft Auto 2: a worthy sequel

Grand Theft Auto 2 is the second chapter in the successful Grand Theft Auto series. GTA 2 is an abandoned top-down action-adventure / driving hybrid game developed by DMA Design and released by Rockstar Games in 1999 for Windows. In GTA 2 you are a wannabe criminal roaming the streets of a fictional city, stealing ...

Might and Magic 2: Gates to Another World

Might and Magic 2: Gates to Another World is a single-player abandoned fantasy RPG designed by Jon and Michaela Van Caneghem, developed and released by New World Computing in 1988 for DOS, Apple 2 and many other platforms. MM2 is the second chapter of the Might and Magic series and it's an improvement ...

Shadowgate, by ICOM Simulations

Shadowgate is an abandoned fantasy-themed adventure game developed by ICOM Simulations and released by Mindscape in 1988 for Macintosh, DOS, and also for Amiga, Apple IIgs, Atari ST, NES. Shadowgate uses the ICOM MacVenture engine (Deja Vu, Uninvited). Shadowgate was later remade in an enhanced version for Windows 3.1.

Magic Carpet, by Bullfrog

I remember little of Magic Carpet, but one thing I remember clearly was the plain fun I had flying around casting spells. It was one of the smoothest first-person games around at the time and it gave me a wonderful feeling of flying freedom. Sadly I never got a chance ...

Game Critics Awards (E3): 1999

The Game Critics Awards is a annual award event that happens just after the very popular E3 video game conference. The Game Critics Awards take place since 1998.In 1999, Freelancer was the game to play and won four prizes. A few of these winners still have a cult following: Outcast, Homeworld, ...

An old school RPG: The Magic Candle

The Magic Candle: Volume 1 is the first chapter of a series of fantasy old school RPGs. The Magic Candle was developed and released by Mindcraft Software in 1989 for DOS but was also published for Apple II and Commodore 64. The whole Magic Candle series is very similar to some of the ...

B-17 Flying Fortress: heavy bomber simulation

B-17 Flying Fortress is a single-player historical combat flight simulation game designed by Mike Brunton, developed and released by MicroProse Software in 1992 for DOS, Amiga and Atari ST. As the title suggests, it's a simulation of the B-17 heavy bomber, set during World War II. Flight is not the only ...

LA Law: The Computer Game

LA Law: The Computer Game is an abandoned adventure game based on the popular TV series from the 80s and 90s. L.A. Law. LA Law was developed by Synergistic Software and released by Capstone in 1992. LA Law plays like a multiple choice adventure game where you have to build ...

Wolfenstein 3D: the grandfather of FPS

Wolfenstein 3D is the first-person shooter that popularized the whole genre in the early 90s and is considered one of the greatest games ever made. Wolfenstein 3D was designed by John Romero and Tom Hall (id Software) and released as shareware by Apogee Software in 1992 for DOS. Wolfenstein 3D is ...

Volfied: a Qix clone on steroids

Volfied is an abandoned action heavily inspired by the classic Qix (draw rectangles in a fixed screen to trap and destroy enemies). Volfied was designed by Fukio Mitsuji, developed by Taito and released by Empire Interactive in 1991 for DOS.

The Incredible Machine: puzzles and contraptions

The Incredible Machine (part of The Incredible Machine series) is a peculiar DOS puzzle game developed by Jeff Tunnell Productions and published by Sierra On-Line in 1993. The goal of the game is to build strange contraptions using the few pieces at your disposal. The result of each puzzle is often ...

CODiE Awards 1994: Myst, SimCity 2000, IndyCar Racing

1994 was the year of Myst. To me, the huge success of Myst was a mystery. Myst was an ok game, different from many other titles, but I didn't see it as a groundbreaking innovative product. I know that many of you will frown reading this, but it really didn't ...

StarCraft: RTS by Blizzard

StarCraft is a classic RTS (Real-Time Strategy) game developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released in 1998 for Windows and Macintosh. StarCraft takes the Warcraft experience to a sci-fi setting with an interesting story, three very different races (the militaristic Humans, the alien Zerg and the religious Protoss) and one of the ...

Adventure Construction Set: build your own CRPG

Adventure Construction Set is an abandoned application developed by Stuart Smith and published for DOS, Amiga, Apple II and Commodore 64 by Electronic Arts in 1987. As the name suggests, ACS is a game-building system (we're talking about adventure RPGs) that lets you edit maps, items, creatures, etc. Included with ACS is ...

GOG Summer Sale 2023

Summer is almost here. On GOG this means that a lot of Good Old Games are on sale. The games on sale range from classics to new titles: Skyrim, Diablo, Contra, Crusader Kings 2, System Shock, Wasteland, Dragon Age: Origins, and more.

Frederik Pohl's Gateway: text adventure 2.0

Frederik Pohl's Gateway is one of the best abandoned adventures games from Legend Entertainment. Gateway is an interactive fiction with graphics and an improved interface (unusual for IFs), based on the Frederik Pohl's novel Gateway. Tt was designed by Michael Verdu and Glen R. Dahlgren and published by Legend Entertainment ...

Bubble Bobble: spitting dinosaurs

Bubble Bobble is perhaps one of the most popular (and cute!) platform arcade games of all times. The goal of Bubble Bobble is simple: clear each screen from various monsters and reach the final stage. In order to get rid of enemies, dinosaurs Bub and Bob can spit bubbles to ...