Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac
Author: GN Team - Published: 22 October 2022, 1:15 pm
Falcon: The F-16 Fighter Simulation is a flight-sim developed by Sphere and published by Spectrum Holobyte initially for MS-DOS and Macintosh in 1987. Two years later, it was ported to Amiga and Atari ST.
In this game, you can pilot the famous F-16 jet in different missions, including air-to-air and air-ground battles. Many aspects of the plane are reproduced faithfully, including the electronic displays and radars. Even the enemy movements were programmed with artificial intelligence to simulate the realistic behavior of pilots. The result was incredibly advanced, considering that the game was released in 1987.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 18 October 2022, 12:47 am
Terminator 2: Judgment Day, renamed T2: The Arcade Game for the home conversions, is a coin-op created by Midway. Later, it was ported to several home computers and consoles. Probe curated the Amiga and Genesis/Mega Driver versions and released them in 1993.
This shooter, made of seven different levels, belongs to the rail-shooter genre, games where you just move your crosshair to shoot approaching enemies. Amiga users will recognize the similarities with another popular shooter called Operation Wolf, but in this case, you have all the movie elements that make the experience more rewarding.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 15 October 2022, 7:50 pm
The Master of Magic is a top-down action-adventure/RPG, published by Mastertronic's Added Dimension originally for the Commodore 64 in 1985.
The game was developed by Richard Darling, while the legendary composer Rob Hubbard created the soundtrack. Even if the title is the same, this game has nothing to do with the famous 1994 strategy game. This title by Mastertronic is less popular than the masterpiece created by Microprose almost ten years later, but this doesn't mean you should not play it. The Master of Magic might look simple, but it's delightful.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 24 September 2022, 2:27 pm
Knightmare, known in Japanese as Majyo Densetsu, is a fantasy vertical shoot-em-up created by Konami for MSX computers in 1986.
In this game, you are Popolon, and your task is to save Aphrodite from the Prince of Darkness. To do that, you must travel across eight levels full of enemies and kill the terrible end-of-level bosses.
What makes this extremely enjoyable game different from the plethora of shooters released in the 80s is that the gameplay is exactly like a classic vertical scrolling shoot-em-up, with starships firing lasers and collecting power-ups, but ported to a fantasy universe. So, instead of a starship, you have a knight walking and firing arrows and swords (or double-swords, if you get the proper power-up). Enemies are classic Japanese fantasy monsters, like demons, ghosts, or evil knights. The bosses are not giant alien monsters but instead witches and devils.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 14 September 2022, 8:38 pm
Rescue on Fractalus! is a sci-fi combat game created by Lucasfilm Games (aka LucasArts) in 1985, initially for Atari 8-bit computers. Later it was ported to Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and other platforms.
Fractalus was one of the first two games (the other one is Ballblazer) created by the famous game studio founded by George Lucas as a spin-off of his main company. The designers of this game include David Fox and Gary Winnick, that would later work with Ron Gilbert on Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, and other famous adventures.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 10 September 2022, 12:26 pm
Moonbase: Lunar Colony Simulator is a strategy/simulation game created by Wesson International in 1990 for MS-DOS. It was later ported to Amiga and Macintosh.
As you can imagine from the title, the game will ask you to build and manage a moon base, specifically, the first human base on the moon. The game designers, Bobby Green and Brett Adams, worked with NASA and KDT Industries to make a simulation as realistic as possible. KDT Industries was a contractor of NASA at the time, and they designed a prototype of a potential moon base. All the game elements are based on this prototype, making it an exciting game from a scientific point of view.
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