Sango Fighter (1993): Taiwan’s Free Take on the Street Fighter Formula
The early ’90s fighting game boom was overwhelmingly a Japanese and American conversation. Sango Fighter is a reminder that other […]
Free DOS Game
Scorched Earth (1991): The Free Shareware Artillery Game That Started It All
If you’ve ever played Worms, or one of the hundred browser-based tank artillery clones that followed it, you’ve already played
ZZT (1991): The Free Game That Turned Players Into Developers
Ask where Epic Games really began and most people will point to Unreal or Gears of War. The honest answer
Supernova (1987): Apogee’s Free, Open-Source Sci-Fi Text Adventure
Not every classic is remembered for being groundbreaking. Some earn their place simply by surviving, and Supernova has survived unusually
Beyond the Titanic (1986): Scott Miller’s Free Text Adventure Debut
Every major shareware empire started somewhere smaller and stranger than its later hits suggest. For Apogee Software, that starting point
Kingdom of Kroz (1987): The Free ASCII Dungeon That Built Apogee
Long before Apogee’s name was synonymous with Duke Nukem and Commander Keen, the company was a scrappy shareware outfit selling
TeenAgent (1995): Poland’s Answer to LucasArts, Free on GOG
Mid-90s Eastern Europe wasn’t exactly a hotbed of internationally distributed PC games, which makes TeenAgent’s cult following outside Poland a
Ken’s Labyrinth (1993): The Free FPS That Came Before the Build Engine
Every genre has a footnote game that history remembers mainly for who made it rather than what it was. Ken’s
God of Thunder (1993): Thor’s Puzzle-Box Norse Adventure
By 1993 the DOS action shelf was packed with corridors full of imps and Nazis to shoot, so a Norse-mythology
Crusader: No Remorse (1995): Origin’s Forgotten Isometric Shooter
Ask a room of DOS gaming fans to name Origin Systems’ best 1995 release and most will say Ultima VIII.
King’s Quest V (1990): The VGA Leap That Redefined Sierra Adventures
What happens when a text parser and EGA graphics both disappear from a Sierra game at once? King’s Quest V
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (1993): Jane Jensen’s New Orleans Ghost Story
Jane Jensen’s New Orleans Some adventure games hand you a joke shop and a string of one-liners. Gabriel Knight: Sins