Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac
Author: GN Team - Published: 24 February 2020, 8:59 pm
Airborne Ranger is an action game created by MicroProse initially in 1987 for the Commodore 64. It was later ported to MS-DOS, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum.
The Amiga and ST versions, released in 1989, were developed by Imagitec Design.
Lawrence Schick was the game designer for this game. He is also known for F-15 Strike Eagle, and most importantly, he co-authored the first D&D Dungeons Masters Guide with legendary Gary Gygax.
MicroProse was famous for simulation games, but for Airborne Ranger, they launched a new genre defined as "action-simulation." You will have to guide your ranger during several missions behind the enemy lines. Munitions will be scarce (so this is clearly not a shoot 'em up), and a lot of stealth will be required to avoid minefields, enemy soldiers, and traps. It's not Metal Gear, but you can try to find the similarities if you want.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 21 February 2020, 6:43 pm
Mind Walker is one of the first videogames ever created for the Amiga and one of the few titles published by Commodore.
This 3D action/puzzle game was designed by Bill Williams and was published in 1986. Williams, both musician and game designer, was known for some excellent Atari 800 games, such as Alley Cat and Necromancer.
Mind Walker was a pleasant surprise for the lucky owners of the Amiga 1000, the first model of this machine (the Amiga 500 would not arrive until 1987). In fact, in 1986, the choice of titles released for the new Commodore computer was relatively poor, and most of them were just conversions. Together with Mind Walker, 1986 saw the release of The Faery Tale Adventure and the more popular Defender of the Crown.
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Author: Maddie - Published: 21 February 2020, 4:08 pm
“Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” is one of the most popular retro games, as it was the very first in the line of the Carmen Sandiego series.
This educational/strategy game was developed and released by Broderbund in the year 1985. Later, three more updated versions of this video game were published; one in 1989 with disk-based copy protection, the second one in 1992, a deluxe (CD-ROM) version, and the third one in 1994, which was a windows version. This game is believed to be inspired by the text-oriented game - Colossal Cave Adventure.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 21 February 2020, 2:12 am
Raid on Bungeling Bay is a helicopter shooter game created by Will Wright for the Commodore 64 and published by Broderbund in 1984.
The game was also ported to the NES and MSX (apparently, there was also a coin-op in Japan).
In this game, you can fly a war helicopter against the evil forces of the Bungeling Empire (also featured in another Broderbund helicopter game, Choplifter!). You will have to destroy ships, planes, tanks, artilleries, and other installations. You can move your vehicle in all directions, accelerating or decreasing speed until you stop. The movement and animations of the helicopter are very realistic.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 16 February 2020, 3:25 pm
Landstalker: Treasure of King Nole is an action-adventure (+part RPG) with a Japanese flavor, created by Climax Entertainment. It was developer for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and released in 1992.
Designed and directed by Kenji Orimo, Landstalker is very difficult to classify. It's set mostly inside dungeons, where our hero will have to defeat plenty of monsters. But it's not a "hack & slash" RPG. There are also towns and non-players characters to interact with, but the role-playing elements are very light. The story of Nigel and the nymph Friday, searching for the Treasure of King Nole, is complex, and the characters are very well-defined. They are funny and intelligent, and you will fall in love with them. The character design is almost at the level of famous adventures such as The Secret of Monkey Island.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 16 February 2020, 1:31 am
Wizkid: The Story of Wizball II is a strange arcade adventure created by Sensible Software. It was published by Ocean in 1992 for Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS.
Programmed and designed by Chris Yates and Jon Hare, the game is supposed to be the sequel of Wizball, the famous 8-bit title created by Sensible founders. The reality is the games are pretty different: Wizball was strange, but at least it was a bouncing ball, jumping on the screen and obeying the gravity law. It could be considered a platformer. In this case, finding a proper genre is tough: Wizkid: The Story of Wizball II is 50% arcade and 50% adventure. The hero is a "head" (vaguely resembling a green Pac-Man) that flies on the screen. Each level comprises several single screens that will need to be cleaned by enemies (scary, terrible enemies such as.. butterflies). To do that, Wizkid will have to hit some Arkanoid-style bricks, throwing them against the creatures.
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