Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac
Author: GN Team - Published: 31 December 2018, 4:18 pm
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is a platformer action-adventure game created by Konami in 1987 for the Famicom. It was released in North America for the NES in 1988.
This is the second game in the extremely popular Castlevania series designed by Hitoshi Akamatsu. Compared to the predecessor, Simon's Quest has different gameplay. At first sight, it is a classic platformer, but when you start playing it, you realize the game is different. You can explore the world freely, and go back to places you have already visited (as you can do in Metroid, hence the term "Metroidvania" to define this kind of game). The gameplay is non-linear, with many RPG elements including levels and stats that advance with experience, inventory system, new weapons that you can purchase in the shops using the coins you obtained. Castlevania II is also one of the first games to have implemented a day and night cycle. During the night the game is more difficult, enemies are stronger and, as you can expect, shops are closed.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 29 December 2018, 6:53 pm
Pushover is a puzzler developed by Red Rat Software and published by Ocean in 1992 for the Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, and SNES.
The game, whose concept was created by Charles Partington, can be defined as an "advergame" since it was sponsored by Quavers, a famous British snack food brand. But unlike many other sponsored titles, Pushover is a brilliant game, with excellent animations, beautiful original music, funny cartoonish graphics, and an excellent intro. But most importantly, it has 100 levels with clever puzzles and gameplay that becomes addictive very soon.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 23 December 2018, 3:28 pm
Galactic: The Xmas Edition is an unreleased game created by Stavros Fasoulas in 1993 exclusively for the Amiga.
It's a mix of a platformer and a flying multidirectional shooter, vaguely reminiscent of Robotron: 2084 and Bubble Bobble.
The Finnish developer was well known for some excellent C64 games, including Sanxion and Quedex. That's why some previews of the game appeared on CU Amiga and The One. Finnish magazines also gave the early version of Galactic an excellent rating. But in the end, Fasoulas was not able to find an official publisher. So he decided to release an unfinished version, renamed Galactic: The Xmas Edition, on the cover disk of the January 1994 issue (out in December) of The ONE magazine. Perfectly in time for Christmas.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 14 December 2018, 8:31 pm
TV Sports Basketball is the second game in the tv-style sports simulations series created by Cinemaware.
The game was created for the Amiga and then ported to MS-DOS. Following the example of TV Sports: Football, released one year before, Basketball adopts the same style, with different camera angles, change of view depending on the ball's position, cutscenes, crowd sounds, announcer's previews, and more. It's really like watching a basketball match on TV.
But it's not just about the presentation and atmosphere. TV Sports Basketball is one of the best sports games made for the Amiga, with plenty of stats, available moves, and options. You can decide to control your favorite player or follow the one with the ball. Choosing when to pass or shoot is fundamental because the defense will try to block or steal the ball. You will have to decide the best times to substitute players because sometimes players from the bench will allow you to win, just like in real life. You can edit all your athlete's attributes and create your custom teams. Stats influence the performance, for example, the shoots' accuracy, but there is just enough randomness to make things fun and challenging.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 8 December 2018, 2:44 am
The Lost Vikings is a puzzle platformer created by Silicon & Synapse (former name of Blizzard Entertainment) and published by Interplay in 1993. It was released for SNES, Genesis, DOS, and Amiga.
Designed by Ronald Millar, the game puts you in control of three Vikings: Eric the Swift, Olaf the Stout, and Baleog the Fierce. Each of them has his abilities, and you will have to combine them, controlling each character in turn, to solve the puzzles. You can, for example, use Olaf's shield to defend your heroes from attacks, while Baleog activates a switch firing an arrow with his bow. If you have played Trine, you know what I mean. Just like the popular Frozenbyte's success, even if the game seems a classic side-view 2D platformer, The Lost Vikings is, in fact, a puzzler. Completing the game will require recurring characters switches and good problem-solving skills.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 2 December 2018, 10:02 pm
Harpoon is a naval wargame created by Three-Sixty Pacific and published for MS-DOS in 1989, then ported to Amiga and Macintosh in 1990.
Former naval officer Larry Bond took inspiration from a real military simulation called NAVTAG to design a board game called Harpoon in 1980. In the game, you can choose to be a commander of either the Soviet or NATO forces in one of the several war scenarios, and employ more than 100 real weapons and pieces of equipment.
The board game became very popular and the author himself, together with Tom Clancy, used it to test the naval battles of The Hunt for Red October and later Red Storm Rising, a book that the two wrote together.
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