Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare (1994): Epic’s Free Christmas Gift Still Holds Up
Every December, a handful of studios release a throwaway holiday-themed level pack that nobody remembers by January. Epic MegaGames managed […]
Free DOS Game
Silverball (1993): DOS Pinball Before Space Cadet Existed
Long before 3D Pinball Space Cadet shipped with Windows and became half a generation’s introduction to virtual pinball, DOS players
Zone 66 (1993): A Free DOS Shooter Built Around One of the Genre’s Best Soundtracks
A Technical Marvel Nobody Talks About Enough Some DOS shooters get remembered for their action, others for their soundtrack. Zone
Vinyl Goddess from Mars (1995): Shareware’s Last Great Platformer Gamble
By 1995, shareware platformers were running out of road — Windows 95 was months away, and the floppy-disk-and-BBS distribution model
Mystic Towers (1994): A Free Wizard-Sim Apogee Almost Forgot
Baron Baldric would really rather be reading. Unfortunately, an aging wizard with a talent for clearing monster-infested towers doesn’t get
Word Rescue (1992): Apogee’s Free Vocabulary Platformer
By 1992, Apogee had built its name distributing run-and-gun shareware platformers. Then the company turned its formula toward classrooms with
Math Rescue (1992): The Free Apogee Platformer That Actually Teaches Arithmetic
Can a game built around solving math problems actually be fun rather than something you tolerate because a teacher assigned
Nitemare-3D (1994): The Hugo Series Goes First-Person
By 1994, nearly every small DOS studio was trying to make its own Wolfenstein clone. Gray Design Associates took a
Corridor 7: Alien Invasion (1994): Wolfenstein’s Engine Gets an Alien Makeover
By late 1994 the first-person shooter had already been reinvented once by Doom. Corridor 7 is what happens when a
Abuse (1995): The Mouse-Aimed Shooter That Was a Decade Ahead of Its Time
A Control Scheme From the Future, Stuck in 1995 Twin-stick shooters didn’t really exist as a concept in 1995, but
Lure of the Temptress (1992): Revolution Software’s First Game Was Already Ambitious
Most studios spend a few games finding their voice. Revolution Software announced theirs on the first try: Lure of the
Flight of the Amazon Queen (1995): A Free Point-and-Click Gem Worth Rediscovering
Joe King — yes, that’s really his name, and yes, the game knows exactly how silly that is — is