Fade to Black (1995): Flashback’s Awkward Leap Into 3D
Conrad B. Hart survived Flashback’s 2D platforming only to wake up in a fully three-dimensional world that barely knew how […]
Games
Action
Time Commando (1996): Adeline Software’s Detour Into Pure Combat
After Little Big Adventure, Adeline Software wanted to make a sequel. What they made instead was a beat-’em-up that fights
Jetpack (1993): A Free DOS Puzzle-Platformer Built Around Fuel Management
What if a platformer never let you jump? By 1993, Commander Keen and its imitators had more or less standardized
Sopwith (1984): The Free DOS Biplane Dogfighter That Started It All
Before the IBM PC was taken seriously as a games machine It’s easy to forget now, but there was a
Galactix (1992): The Free DOS Shooter With Sticky Fingers
A shareware shooter with a claw problem Most vertical shooters from the early 90s are content to let you fly
Skunny Kart (1993): A Free, Forgotten DOS Kart Racer
Kart racing as its own genre was still a relatively new idea in 1993, largely thanks to console hits pioneering
Depth Dwellers (1994): The Free Underwater Shooter That Let You Look Up
By 1994, the Doom-inspired shooter wave had settled into a fairly predictable visual language: sci-fi corridors, hell dimensions, industrial complexes.
Realms of Chaos (1995): Apogee’s Brutal Late-Era Run-and-Gun, Free to Download
By 1995, the DOS shareware action genre had been through several years of iteration, and it shows in Realms of
Adventures of Robbo (1993): Poland’s Favorite Robot, Free to Download
Some game legacies never quite cross borders the way they deserve to. Robbo, the small robot at the center of
Electro Man (1992): A Free DOS Platformer Built Around Teleporters
The early-90s shareware scene was flooded with side-scrolling platformers trying to out-Keen Commander Keen, and most of them leaned on
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe (1991) Review: The Bitmap Brothers’ Violent Sports Classic
Take away the ball for a second and Speedball 2 is basically hockey played inside a steel cage where body-checking
IndyCar Racing (1993): Papyrus’s First Step Toward Sim Racing Greatness
If you’ve ever spent hours tuning suspension and gearing in a racing simulator, you owe part of that habit to