Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac
Author: GN Team - Published: 27 September 2019, 9:27 pm
Parasol Stars, also known as Parasol Stars: The Story of Rainbow Islands II - or if you prefer, The Story of Bubble Bobble III - is an arcade by Taito. The title is quite strange because there was no "Story of Bubble Bobble I". Anyway, the game is the sequel to Rainbow Island, which was created and released by Taito in 1991.
Unlike its predecessors, Parasol Stars was not developed as a coin-op; it was released on the PC-Engine. The Amiga and Atari ST were the only computer conversions; they were published by Ocean in 1992. The C64 port was never completed. It's not clear if Taito was going to release a coin-op or not. What we know is that Parasol Stars is one of the most addictive, fun, and colorful platformers ever created. The computer ports, developed by Mick West, are excellent. The playability is perfect, the controls responsive, and the graphics are fantastic. I am personally a huge fan of Bubble Bobble, but Parasol Stars is even better. Of course, playing with a friend is almost mandatory because this is "co-op" at its best.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 14 September 2019, 12:58 pm
Zork III: The Dungeon Master is the third and final chapter of the Zork classic trilogy, and one of the most famous text adventures ever created. Published by Infocom, it was released in 1982 for the TRS-80, Apple II, Atari 8-bit and MS-DOS. Several other versions were produced in the following years.
We are talking about a text adventure, so there are no graphics or other elements to interact with. There is only text, and all the commands are given typing phrases, mostly "verb + object". The parser here is much more advanced compared to the first Zork: The Great Underground Empire, that was released in 1977 on mainframes. But the best quality of Zork 3 is its game design: there are only a few macro-puzzles, that you will have to solve step by step. Everything is well designed and makes sense, there are no puzzles that must be solved with a series of random actions. Besides, the atmosphere is a bit darker, and the tone is more serious compared to the previous games. It's hard, but hard in the right way. For all these reasons, Zork III is one of the text adventures of the '80s that are still very actual today, and it's strongly suggested. If you never played interactive fictions, remember to draw a map, and if you want, search a tutorial online to get some hints :)
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Author: Tasha - Published: 12 September 2019, 9:09 pm
Blake Stone: Planet Strike! (a.k.a. Blake Stone: Firestorm) is the sequel to the original Blake Stone. It was developed by JAM Productions and published by Apogee in 1994 for DOS. Like its predecessor, it made its way to Windows, Mac, and Linux in later years. Interesting fact, this would be the last game before JAM ended up folding.
Planet Strike! picks up where Blake Stone: Aliens Of Gold left off. Goldfire managed to escape in the first one and go into hiding for several years. Now that he’s been found, it’s up to Blake to take out the evil scientist once and for all. Delving deep into his new evil lair, you will need to take out his new guards and disarm security to proceed to reach your target.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 11 September 2019, 11:12 pm
Star Raiders is a space combat sim created by Atari and published in 1979 for the 8-bit computer series. Later, it was ported to Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari ST.
The game was created by Doug Neubauer, one of the engineers who worked on designing the Atari 8-bit computers. It was one of the first titles released for the Atari computer and probably the first space combat sim ever created. A genre that will produce masterpieces such as Elite, Frontier: Elite II, Wing Commander, Freespace, and many more.
Star Raiders is incredibly advanced if you think it was created in 1979. You can move on the 2D map from one galaxy sector to another. Once you detect the enemy ships (called Zylon, an obvious reference to Battlestar Galactica), you can use the hyperjump to reach them and destroy them. The first-person view is amazingly created thanks to the starfield moving in the background, while the radar informs you in real-time about the movements of your targets. The enemy ships, resembling Tie fighters and Klingon ships, move smoothly on the screen, thanks to the usage of the hardware sprites of the Atari 8-bit. The explosions, alarms, engine sounds are generated by the audio chip of the computer (the chip that Neubauer designed).
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Author: GN Team - Published: 8 September 2019, 1:43 am
Frogger is an arcade created by Konami and one of the most popular video games ever created. It was released for the first time in 1981, and it has been ported to almost all platforms since then.
In case you don't know this game, the goal is to save the frogs taking them safely to the other side of the screen, after crossing the road and the river. It won't be easy to survive, because the road is full of cars, trucks, and bulldozers. In case the unlucky animals manage to get to the other side of the street, you will have them to pass the river. You might think that this is easier since we are talking about frogs, but for some strange reasons, frogs in Frogger cannot swim. They will have to jump on the logs and turtles and avoid the crocodiles. If they touch the water, they die (don't ask me why).
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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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