Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac
Author: Gustavo - Published: 28 February 2021, 2:49 pm
Operation Thunderbolt is a rail shooter coin-op released by Taito in 1988 as the sequel to Operation Wolf. It was ported to Zx Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga ST, Amiga, and other platforms in 1989-1990.
So, funny story. When I first ran Operation Thunderbolt, I expected a menu to pop up and go straight to the shooting. When the game started, I saw a kidnapping story and thought, "great, wrong game." After googling for a while, I concluded that there was no other game with the same name, and I started it again. When I finished the introduction, the main menu appeared with the two main characters shooting everywhere, and I realized I had gotten the title right. The moral is that I'm used to so many poorly ported games or games with little attention to the story that a few images and narrations surprised me. After completing the game, I was amazed by Operation Thunderbolt, and today I will share my experience with you.
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Author: Gustavo - Published: 28 February 2021, 2:38 pm
Alien Carnage is a side-scrolling shooter created by Interactive Binary Illusions and SubZero Software, published by Apogee in 1993 for MS-DOS. The game was released as freeware in 2007.
Having to talk about Alien Carnage, I really don't know what to think. On the one hand, it's a game I loved, enjoyed every moment from start to finish, and kept me entertained throughout. On the other hand, something about the character design and several sections of the gameplay I found tedious and insufferable. Got your curiosity? Then let's explore this title a bit further.
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Author: Gustavo - Published: 27 February 2021, 2:52 am
Gobliins 2 is the second chapter in the series of adventure-puzzle games developed by Coktel Vision. Sierra On-Line released it in 1992 for the Amiga, Atari ST MS-DOS.
Making a funny game is not an easy task. Everyone knows that the most difficult genres to work with are horror and comedy, and although horror favors the gameplay, this does not happen with the other genre. If in itself many of these games fail miserably, if we go back a few decades, it was even worse. That's why finding a classic gem that really makes you laugh is a challenging goal. With that said, today, we are going to analyze Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon, probably the best episode of the series.
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Author: Gustavo - Published: 27 February 2021, 2:39 am
James Pond: Underwater Agent is a side-scrolling platform game developed by Vectordean. It was published by Millennium Interactive in 1990. It was initially for the Amiga and later ported to Atari ST, Sega Mega Drive, and other platforms.
I must admit that my introduction to James Pond: Underwater Agent started on the wrong foot. The first time I played it, I was quickly offended to think it was a copy of Ariel the Little Mermaid, one of my favorite Sega titles when I was under ten. I recently gave James Pond a second chance and was shocked to learn that it was developed before the Little Mermaid and is even much better. Anyway, let's start with the review before my childhood is even more shattered.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 22 February 2021, 10:13 pm
Bombuzal is a cute puzzler released by Image Works in 1988 for the Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari ST. Later it was ported to MS-DOS, SNES, and other platforms. The Amiga version was distributed as a cover disk of the Amiga Power magazine.
The game, that in the US was know with the title "Ka-Blooey", was designed by Antony Crowther (Captive, Knightmare) and David Perry (Disney's Aladdin). The goal is to clean all the 130 levels from the bombs by exploding them. To activate the bombs, our friend Bombuzal must walk on them and use the fire button of the joystick. The problem is, as soon as he moves to go away, the bombs detonate. Sounds dangerous, right? As a matter of fact, only the smallest can be activated safely. The other ones must be eliminated, using chain reactions. In some cases, the chain reaction must be created with some well-plotted movements. This is possible because some of the bombs, the ones placed on rails, can be relocated. To make things more complex, there are also "dissolved" tiles, that disappear once you walk on them (so you can use them only once), "iced" tiles, where you cannot stop, and so on.
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Author: Gustavo - Published: 21 February 2021, 4:04 pm
NARC is an arcade created by Williams Electronics in 1988. It was converted to several home platforms, including Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64, in 1990 by Ocean. It supports a two-player mode.
There is no doubt that playing games with tremendous stories, extensive lore, and impeccable scripts are an indescribable experience. Many games like Final Fantasy, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, or The Elder Scrolls: Arena have such memorable stories that will forever stay in our memories. But let's be honest, as much as we love those games, the cruel truth is that they're exhausting. This is where other titles like NARC come in, which do the dirty work. As much as we can't remember the protagonists' names, the frantic and unjustifiably violent gameplay is all we're looking for, and today we're going to revisit it. Enjoy the ride; it's going to be a violent one.
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