Welcome to The Good Old Days!

2021-07-24

Although we review new text adventures with quite some regularity, there is also a wealth of new (free) point & click adventures released every year. The Telwynium may be a good one to introduce this world to our audience. Graphics and interface clearly recall Sierra's transitionary period, when they already used mouse interfaces, but before they moved on to fancy VGA visuals.

2021-07-17

Dungeon crawls… what genre could be possibly more timeless than this one? Tales of Maj'Eyal, or TOME4 for short made a big buzz about ten years ago, starting the big commercial revival of roguelike games. That not only makes it a worthy entry into our database for reasons of historical legacy, but it's also already a "good old" game on its own right by now.

2021-07-10

Here comes the "Krew". The Skeleton Krew. Yes, the 90s were really an embarassing decade, weren't they? Some parts, we may nowadays think back to fondly, but for sure, where things went too far in their attempt to be "cool" (or |<3\/\/1), there is no defense. Looking beyond the cover, there could still be a good game inside nevertheless, right?

2021-07-06

Pirates! is among the games I essentially never have stopped playing since first seeing them on my screen. Of course, back then, it was an elderly TV it was beaming from. These days, it's more likely an emulator window. One way or another, though, it remains one of those timeless designs which just draw you in time and time again.

2021-07-03

Recently challenged on our forums about my dislike for roleplaying games, I took the opportunity to try and set things right on this account once again. Actually, if you browse a bit, you'll find a number of quite positive RPG reviews written by me here on the site. Though admittedly, there are typical aspects of the genre which I do dislike. Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna does away with most of them, making it my favourite installment of this classic series. At least on paper, as it does have its own issues, unfortunately.

2021-06-26

Super Mario invented the jump on the opponent's head named after him and became famous in every child's room. With the collection of a feather, he can even hurl fireballs. MetaMorphosis has lived up to his name and transformed Mario into a spider creature that shoots poison spit. The cute enemies are also all bizarre creatures that seem to have sprung from a horror trip. Don't be put off and take a look.

2021-06-19

The first episode of Paganitzu was put on the market as shareware for the PC and was a typical beginner's game that ran flawlessly even on weak computers. Due to the low level of difficulty, even newcomers were not immediately deterred and encouraged to play. With Amiganitzu, the game was even converted to the PC's famous predecessor 21 years later. Such an honoured game is worth a closer look for me in the following.

2021-06-16

Whoosh! Is that one window shooting at another one? Oh, no, another missile flying in! And what is that transport plane carrying? A large battle robot? Boom, there goes my headquarters. Metal Marines put fun on Windows (3.x) desktops. Still fun today. Even if not that many people may be using Windows anymore.

2021-06-12

2021-06-05

Back over to the other side of the big atlantic pond, right into the most dusty backrooms of provincial Germany. This is where we find the remnants of what used to be a mainstay of game culture around here. Never eclipsing the changing most popular genres of each age, but finally outlasting almost all of them. Business simulations were always there to stay. Sneered and laughed at, but always making a solid profit. Winzer, along with others, was a part of my own socialisation.