Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac
Author: E. Bolognesi - Published: 13 September 2020, 2:05 pm
Deadline is a text adventure published by Infocom in 1982. It was written by Marc Blank, one of the principal authors of Zork: The Great Underground Empire. The game was initially released for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit, and TRS-80. Then later, for the Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Macintosh, TI-99/4A, and several other platforms.
Blank wanted to try a different genre after the three fantasy chapters of Zork. With Deadline, he tested his writing skills with a hardboiled/crime interactive fiction, and the result was excellent. The story is a classic. The rich and famous entrepreneur Marshall Robner was found dead in his library - the door closed from the inside. Apparently, it's an overdose of antidepressants, and the police will close the case as a suicide. But Robner's lawyer is not convinced and asks you, a famous detective, to investigate. You have exactly 8 hours to find the truth, explore the house, and talk with the possible suspects.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 12 September 2020, 2:03 am
WWF WrestleMania is a wrestling game created by Twilight originally for the Amiga and published by Ocean in 1991.
The game, which was the first official WWF-licensed title for home computers, was also ported to Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, and ZX Spectrum.
Please don't consider it a wrestling sim; this is more of an arcade. Anyway, you will have at your disposal several moves, not just punches and kicks, but also the famous dropkicking, clotheslining, and a grapple maneuver.
You can control one of the famous fighters of the '90s: Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, or the British Bulldog. Instead, the opponents are Mr. Perfect, The Warlord, "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, The Mountie, and Sgt. Slaughter. The fact that you can be Hulk Hogan should already be a good reason to play. If this is not enough, consider using the chair you will find outside the ring as a weapon.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 11 September 2020, 8:45 pm
Jim Power in Mutant Planet is a shooter/platformer created initially for the Amiga by Digital Concept and published by Loriciels in 1992. The game was also ported to Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, and TurboGrafx CD.
There is also a console version for SNES and Genesis, but the game is quite different (and much worse).
The game, designed by Guillaume Dubail and Fernando Velez, is very ambitious. The graphics are excellent, with incredibly detailed backgrounds, full of colors, despite the lack of an AGA version. The parallax scrolling adds depth to the animations, which is smooth and precise. Even the graphics of the menu are fantastic. Some people criticized the game's colorful backgrounds because they are even too much, but that will be up to you to decide. What has never been criticized is the beautiful soundtrack composed by the legendary Chris Hülsbeck. This alone represents a good reason to try the game.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 8 September 2020, 11:27 am
Shadow Sorcerer is a fantasy RPG created by Strategic Simulations Inc and released in 1991 for the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS.
The title is tied to the famous Dragonlance Chronicles written by Margaret Weis e Tracy Raye Hickman, novels that defined the Dragonlance settings of Dungeons & Dragons.
The year before, SSI released another title based on the Dragonlance settings, Champions of Krynn, the first or the Gold-box trilogy set in Dragonlance. But in that case, the player had to create new characters. With Shadow Sorcerer instead, SSI used the official TSR license to take Tanis, Sturm, Goldmoon, Raistlin, and the other heroes into a videogame. It's also probably not a coincidence that the game uses an isometric perspective that makes the characters look like D&D miniatures. In general, SSI indeed paid attention to the graphics; they also used the fantastic drawings by Larry Elmore (who created the covers of the books) for the initial screen of the game and the characters' portraits. Despite being made with a few pixels, Tanis and his friends look like the ones you saw in the books. That's very cool.
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Author: Gustavo - Published: 8 September 2020, 1:50 am
Mega Man 3 is the third game of the popular side-scroller platformer created by Capcom.
When you grow up playing video games, sooner or later, you learn that none of your favorite sagas are safe from the passage of time. In some cases, the game changes for the better, as the transition to 3D of Mario Bros. In other cases... Not so much (I'm looking at you, Sonic).
On the other hand, the Mega Man series always seemed to be an exception to the rule. The saga went through more than ten different entries, more than 15 consoles, and several graphics rework, but it always remained faithful to its essence. Mega Man 3: The Robots are Revolting is probably one of the most known parts of the saga. The title was developed and released in 1992 by Hi-Tech Expressions in association with Rozner Labs for DOS. It also continues the canon established in the previous entry for the same console.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 8 September 2020, 1:03 am
Kick Off 3: European Challenge is an updated version of Kick Off 3, the third chapter of one of the most famous soccer sims series ever created.
Anco published the game in 1994, but unlike Kick Off 2, this time, the developer was not the legendary Dino Dini. The author was Steve Screech, who had previously worked with Dino Dini on the other chapters. Kick Off 3 represented a considerable change compared to the predecessor. The perspective was no longer the iconic birds-eye view, but instead a more "console-style" isometric side view. Fans of the original Kick Off did not like the change, especially on the Amiga, where Kick Off 2 was a cult. The fact that the game also offered an AGA version was not enough. At least European Challenge showed some enhancement for Amiga users that had only one-button joysticks.
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