Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Play Elite online: the birth of space simulations

The very first Elite was the kind of game that starts a whole genre. Space sims - I'm talking about the trade-fight-explore kind of sims - started with the creation of David Braben and Ian Bell. Games like Freelancer and EVE Online owe Elite a great deal. The Elite series ...

Heretic and Hexen: fantasy FPS

Wolfenstein 3D made the FPS genre known to the world, Doom raised the quality bar and the popularity of First Person Shooters. Then came Heretic, a fantasy version of Doom with the addition of an inventory. Heretic was one of the few FPS I actually finished (and loved). I never ...

Space Harrier: third-person rail shooter

Space Harrier is a 3rd-person view rail-shooter developed by Sega in 1985. Space Harrier was a hit in the arcades, and later it was converted for a number of platforms, including DOS (4 years later!). The sequels - Space Harrier 3D and Space Harrier II - were never ported to DOS.

Operation Wolf: first-person shooting gallery

Operation Wolf was a hit at the arcades, in part thanks to that wonderful cabinet. I have to admit that I've never played it outside my home. I used to play Operation Wolf first on a Commodore 64 (and yes, I enjoyed it) and later on a 386 PC. What I really ...

What were your favourite shoot'em ups?

Shoot 'em ups were extremely popular in the '80s and '90s, even among PC owners.In a shoot 'em up, players control some sort of vehicle (or an aircraft) with the only goal of destroying the largest number of enemies while dodging their bullets as long as they ...

More shoot'em ups from the past

Shoot'em ups were one of the most popular video games genre in the 80s and, perhaps, in the 90s. Then, for a number of reasons, shoot'em ups gradually lost their appeal as a genre. Yes, there were exceptions like Geometry Wars and similar games, but the golden age was long ...

Pie in the Sky engine and the Colosso series

Pie in the Sky engine was a game engine developed by Pie in the Sky Software. The Pie in the Sky engine was also used by independent companies to develop their games.The Colosso games (three FPS part of the same series) are quite rare and, surprisingly, the developer liberated ...

Shoot 'em ups: shoot down anything that moves

The phrase "shoot 'em up" amuses me; it's like... a redneck declaration of violent intent. As a subgenre of shooter video games, it's difficult to define. Shoot' em ups are usually identified with some kind of vehicle shooting down (pew! pew!) aliens, soldiers, planes, etc.With this update, I bring ...

An FPS I completely missed: Marathon

I loved Doom (and Wolfenstein 3D before that). I used to play Duke Nukem 3D online with a friend (and I always lost to a cunning use of the Duke hologram). I played quite a few FPSs but I have to admit... I missed the Marathon series completely. To make ...

First-person shooters: future, present, past

First-person shooters is a pretty straightforward subgenre of action games. Gameplay mechanics are simple and straightforward: run away from enemies, shoot them, find items and power ups and go on.What I always liked in FPSs was the variety of theme/setting from game to game. Here's a few examples. ...

Pew pew! Boom boom!

Pew pew! Boom! Pew pew pew! Crash! I have to admit... I really don't know what to write about shoot'em ups. Well, let's try.Here's a bunch of (mostly) vertical scrolling shoot'em ups: shoot enemies, avoid more enemies, reach the end of each level, meet the boss.There's really not ...

Virtua Cops

Since Operation Wolf, shooting gallery games (or rail shooters) became quite popular. Apart from Operation Wolf, Cabal and a few others, there wasn't much on PC until Virtua Cop ("Virtua Squad" for the american audience). Virtua Cop brought 3D to the genre, but the gameplay is the same that every ...

A few more First Person Shooters

First Person Shooters revolutionalized action gaming since the advent of Wolfenstein 3D and, later, Doom. Everyone knows about these two games, but there were a lot of lesser known old FPSs. Apart from System Shock, I bet that not much of you ever heard of every single one of these ...

Retro game spotlight: Star Wars

Star Wars is a coin-op conversion that, in all its vector graphics glory, made Star Wars fans dream of being Luke Skywalker. I remember using every drop of force I had left, in a local arcade, just to get past the AT-ATs.