Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac
Author: GN Team - Published: 25 January 2020, 4:11 am
Super Hang-On is a motorcycle racing coin-op created by SEGA and released in 1987. It was ported to many platforms in the following years, including Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Atari ST, and ZX Spectrum.
It was the sequel of Hang-On, another coin-op released two years before. Both games were designed by the legendary game creator Yu Suzuki, also known for OutRun, After Burner, and many other successes.
The Amiga version of Super Hang-On, released in 1988, was developed by Software Studios, and it was one of the most appreciated (and one of the most faithful ports).
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Author: GN Team - Published: 23 January 2020, 10:48 pm
Magic Pockets is a platformer created by The Bitmap Brothers and published for Atari ST and Amiga in 1991 by Renegade Software.
It was also ported to PC, Acorn 32-bit, Genesis/Mega Drive, and other platforms.
The Bitmap Brothers are well known for several legendary titles such as Gods and Speedball. Magic Pockets is one of their less-known creations. Even if nobody will consider it the best platformer ever created, it has excellent graphics, good sounds, nice intro music (pity that there is no music during the game, probably the only big flaw), and very original ideas.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 19 January 2020, 9:35 pm
Ghosts 'N Goblins is a popular arcade released by Capcom in 1985 and later ported to many home platforms.
The Amiga version was published by Elite in 1990, several years after the original Capcom coin-op. It was released a few months after the release of the sequel, Ghouls 'N Ghosts, by US Gold.
The legendary platformer featuring Sir Arthur trying to survive the demons' village was designed by Tokuro Fujiwara (also the author of Commando and many other games). The arcade was initially released in 1985 and was ported to many home computers and consoles. The Commodore 64 was probably the best until, 5 years later, the Amiga version was finally out. Graphics, music, and gameplay are the most faithful you can expect. This is universally considered the best port of Ghosts 'N Goblins. Unfortunately, the difficulty level is also quite faithful, which means the game is almost impossible unless you use the options provided in the package: unlimited lives, invulnerability, unlimited time, and more.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 18 January 2020, 2:54 pm
StarCraft is one of the most influential real-time-strategy games ever created and one of the most important video games of all time.
It was developed by Blizzard Entertainment, and it was initially released in 1998 for Windows. Later it was also ported to Mac OS and Nintendo 64. The game design was curated by Chris Metzen and James Phinney.
The game features three distinct races, Protoss, Zerg, and Terrans, utterly different in terms of visuals, weapons, and buildings. If you follow the single-player campaign, the storyline will allow the player to control all of them. You will have to learn and master their strengths and weaknesses if you want to win. Starcraft was the first RTS to use totally different factions. But despite the differences in terms of tactics and strategies required by each faction, the game is perfectly balanced. This one of the reasons why Starcraft is so great. A fantastic sci-fi graphics, brilliant music, hi-quality dialogs, and a storyline that was continued in books and novels, complete the game.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 17 January 2020, 7:49 pm
The Operative: No One Lives Forever, also known as NOLF, is a first-person shooter/stealth game created by Monolith Productions. It was published by Fox Interactive for PC in 2000.
If you take a 007 movie of the '60s, with its "cold war" atmosphere, and a bit of Austin Powers, with its humor and bright colors, you have the settings of this game. Add a sexy female spy with a British accent and a lot of cool gadgets (Peggy Carter, or if you prefer, Sydney Bristow from Alias maybe?). Mix all of this in a gameplay that is mostly a first-person-shooter but where stealth plays an important role, and you can have an idea of this fantastic game.
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Author: GN Team - Published: 11 January 2020, 2:30 pm
Sword of Honour is a beat-em-up action-adventure set in ancient Japan, where you impersonate a Ninja that has to regain the trust of his Shogun by recovering a sword.
The game was created by the small Swedish studio Dynafield, and it was released for Amiga and Commodore 64 in 1992, followed by a DOS version in 1993.
The comparison with The Last Ninja is almost mandatory. Still, first of all, there is a big difference. Instead of the isometric view used by System 3 famous title, Sword of Honour uses a more traditional side-view, just like Budokan: The Martial Spirit or International Karate +. But this doesn't mean that the game created Dynafield is a pure beat-em-up. On the contrary, the action-adventure component of Sword of Honour is even more developed. In fact, there are not only weapons to find in the game but also objects that you will need to use to solve puzzles.
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