Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac
Author: GN Team - Published: 29 August 2019, 1:52 am
Battle Chess is a chess game created by Interplay initially for the Amiga and published in 1988. It was so successful that it had been ported to most platforms available, including MS-DOS, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Macintosh and many others. It was followed by two sequels, Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess and Battle Chess 4000, and you can find references to this game in movies and other media.
The game was produced by Brian Fargo himself, founder of Interplay. The idea is brilliant but straightforward: take the classic chess game, but every time a piece is captured, show an animation. If you have watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone you know what I'm talking about. When a piece is going to capture another piece, there is a short - and comical - combat scene, and after that, the captured piece disappears. There are a lot of funny references, such as the scene where Indiana Jones gets rid of the swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 22 August 2019, 10:13 pm
Skate or Die is a skateboarding game created by Electronic Arts and released for the Commodore 64 in 1987. It was then ported to ZX Spectrum, Apple II, MS-DOS, NES, and other platforms in the following years.
A real fan favorite, it is considered one of the best games ever created for the Commodore 64, but not only, because the NES version was a commercial success too.
In this game, you can test your skills in five different events: freestyle ramp, high jump, downhill race, downhill jam, and the pool joust. Up to 8 players can compete, playing in turn. Of course, you can also play alone, but the real fun is against friends.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 17 August 2019, 5:38 pm
Paradroid 90 is the remake/enhanced version for 16-bit computers (Amiga and Atari ST) of the classic C64 shooter Paradroid. It was published by Hewson Consultants in 1990.
The conversion to 68000 Assembler, and the subsequent Atari ST version, was made by the original creator of the Commodore 64 game: Andrew Braybrook. He also personally ported the title to the Commodore Amiga.
In this top-down multi-directional shooter, you control a small droid, and your goal is to eliminate all the other droids infesting the spaceship. Interestingly, you can destroy them with your laser or try to control them with a ‘transfer.’ The transfer is dangerous, but it will allow you to use their skills and weapons. The resulting gameplay is quite fascinating and original.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 14 August 2019, 1:49 am
Z-Out is a 2D sci-fi shoot 'em up created by Advantec and published by Rainbow Arts in 1990 for Amiga and Atari ST.
The game was released as the sequel of X-Out, another horizontal scrolling shooter, even though this was not the initial idea of the developer. You can notice it because the game is probably more similar to R-Type rather than X-Out. However, Z-Out can be defined as the typical 16-bit shooter you could expect in 1990: great music (composed by the legendary Chris Hülsbeck), excellent graphics (with an organic/sci-fi style inspired to Aliens), and a difficulty level set to "impossible".
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Author: GN Team - Published: 13 August 2019, 8:47 pm
Cytron is a top-down sci-fi shooter created by Lunatic and published by Psygnosis exclusively for the Amiga in 1992.
Designed and programmed by Martin Hall and James Thomas, this title will remind you of Gauntlet, or, even better, Robotron: 2084 (whose name has probably inspired the creators). The main character is a small robot that will have to find its way across the maze-like levels, trying to destroy enemies and rescue the trapped scientists - yes, the plot has some similarities with D/Generation.
The robot can also split into two independent parts (called "Cyt" and "Ron"), that you can control with the mouse and joysticks. This creates interesting gameplay solutions since you will have to use the different characteristics of the two units to solve puzzles. Because of this, we can also add Head Over Heels to the list of references.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 11 August 2019, 11:10 pm
Isles of Terra is the third game in the Might and Magic series. It was released initially for MS-DOS in 1991, then ported to Amiga in 1992. Several other versions were published later, including Macintosh, Sega CD, and SNES.
This was the last M&M to appear on so many platforms, in fact starting from the 4th game (Clouds of Xeen), the series became a PC exclusive.
The game was directed by Jon Van Caneghem, the original creator and designer of the Might and Magic titles, but this time the development team was much bigger. Like its predecessors, this role-playing game is based on a pseudo-3D first-person view. The setting is fantasy, with all the classic races and classes that you would expect (but Isles of Terra adds Druids and Rangers, which were previously not available).
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