Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac
Author: GN Team - Published: 13 February 2021, 6:14 pm
Spellbound is an adventure-platformer created by David Jones for Mastertronic. It was published under the label Mastertronic Added Dimension in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. The Commodore 64 and Atari-8 bit versions were released in 1986.
Unlike the first game of the Magic Knight series, Finders Keepers, Spellbound can be fully considered a graphic adventure. It's not point-and-click, and you explore the world from a side view typical of platformers, but you will find objects, environment elements, and characters, and you can interact with them using a list of actions such as Examine, Read, Give, and Take. All of this is implemented with an engine called Windimation, developed by David Jones, that is very similar to the contextual menus or modern operative systems. It really reminds me of the menu and windows you could see on MS-DOS at the end of the '80s.
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Author: Gustavo - Published: 13 February 2021, 12:14 pm
Arkanoid 2 - Revenge of Doh is the sequel to Arkanoid, a popular coin-op created by Taito in 1986. The sequel was released in 1987 and ported to Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and XZ Spectrum in 1988.
I have to admit that I always had a soft spot in my heart for Arkanoid. As a kid, I still remember looking through a long list of random titles to search for that specific game where you control a bat, collect power-ups, and change your shape. I always had a clear preference for the shooting one because why bounce balls off bricks when you can shoot them down? Anyway, it is easy to say that this game marked both my youth and that of many other people, but... Did you know that it has a sequel? Welcome, this is Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 12 February 2021, 9:49 pm
Halls of the Dead: Faery Tale Adventure II is the sequel to the 1987 RPG The Faery Tale Adventure created by MicroIllusions.
The sequel was developed by The Dreamers Guild, a studio founded by some former members of MicroIlusions, and published in 1997 by Encore.
The plot continued the one of the original game, but the technology was completely different due to the 10 years of difference. In fact, the original game was developed for the Amiga and later ported to the Commodore 64 and other platforms, while Faery Tale Adventure 2 was a PC exclusive.
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Author: Adam - Published: 10 February 2021, 6:30 pm
The Adventures of Willy Beamish is a graphic adventure developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line in 1991.
The game is regarded as one of the best Sierra adventures, and with good reason. This golden oldie allows the player to go back into their glory days of being a nine-year-old mischievous boy. It uses hand-drawn cartoon themes and characters.
The game is set in the school years of Willy Beamish, who is taking on the role of a classic ''brat'' from an upper-middle-class American family. Willy is a typical kid, obsessed with science fiction, hanging out with friends in the treehouse, and the usual stuff. The plot is simple: the Town of Frumpton is under threat from a range of baddies, and it is up to Willy to save the day and become the hero. The game follows through with many twists and turns that are quite common with Sierra On-Line games. There are many hidden secrets for the player to enjoy.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 10 February 2021, 4:04 pm
Ghostbusters II is an adaptation of the famous movie by Ivan Reitman, the sequel to the 1984 film Ghostbusters. The game was developed by Foursfield for several home computers, including ZX Spectrum, MSX, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, and Amiga, and published by Activision UK.
Unfortunately, the choice to develop the games for multiple platforms, including 8-bit computers, limited the developers in terms of features they could add to the game. The title includes only three scenes taken from the movie: inside the sewers, the Statue of Liberty walk to the Museum of Art, and finally, the battle against Vigo inside the museum. Great graphics on the Amiga version but not-so-good gameplay. But if you are a movie fan, you cannot miss it.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 9 February 2021, 5:44 pm
Dragon's Lair: Escape from Singe's Castle is the second part of the home computer version of the famous laserdisc game Dragon's Lair. The popular series was created by Don Bluth Studios.
The original arcade was too big to fit into the memory of the computers available at that time, not to mention the floppy disks. So the story was split into two parts. The Dragon's Lair game, released in 1989, ends when Dirk defeats the dragon. In this second part, released several months later, Dirk has to save the princess from the castle.
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