Y’know, I still don’t have a PC that can handle playing games like Left 4 Dead, Half Life 2 or any new and exciting games. Not that Half Life is actually that new!

That’s why I thank God for Abandonware, and also awesome games which you can still buy like Warcraft II. You’d be interested to know that even if you don’t own a legit copy (and I own two for some reason) you can probably pirate yourself one (or Starcraft) and play on the Asian Battle.Net servers with your friends – nobody is there anymore, therefore nobody’s keys are there either…

I’ve also been dabbling with early version of The Settlers, Dungeon Keeper, Fallout 1 & 2 and Heaven & Hell.

And yes, I will be adding more games here over time. But as you all know, I don’t just add anything. It’s only games I like

Old games FTW.

Hopefully it’ll keep updated. Well, more updated than this bloody site has been lately eh? Not hard really. Sorry about that folks. If only I could quit my job and just update my site all day and play games. Alas, that will never happen…

I remember when there were many abandonware websites. Back in the days of Flashback, Conservatory etc. Then maybe we grow up and grow away from these things. Everyone runs off and gets a job or gets married The rest of us die-hard nerds are left here behind holding it all together… Maybe abandonware stops being 100k games from the 80s and becomes 100mb games from the late 90s and we are left with the issue of hosting and bandwidth. What to do?

The die-hards aren’t leaving. The Good Old Days, XTC Abandonware, Abandonia, this website. We’ll still be here.

It’s a sad day when the world loses access to rare games, old games, forgotten games, forsaken games.

I must say it is a relief that HOTU went down because the hosting company went bankrupt. Is that an awful thing to say? I’m glad because it’s not because it got closed down by some crappy dictatorshippycommunisty IDSA or something bullshit like that.

Hopefully someone is man enough to step up and take over. Did I say “man enough”? This scene is run by chicks – if you didn’t know that then you should leave again in case you get an inferiority complex

Sad day, sad day indeed. It means the rest of us are going to have to work extra hard to pick up the slack. Rise to the challenge boys :p

This game may have the Mario brand, but it’s also a very comprehensive typing tutor. It only had one fault I could find, it wouldn’t let me skip ahead to more advanced levels if I felt I was advanced enough to start further ahead. I had to go through each of the easy levels to see what was happening up ahead.

The first step is to create yourself a profile. Give yourself a name and choose if you want to play as Mario, Luigi or Princess Peach. Then you’re off starting your lessons.

There are five lessons, each contains different sets, such as numbers, letters, top keys, bottom keys, symbols and the entire keyboard. Each lesson is themed, the first being standard Mario head-butting blocks, plus under the sea, in the castle and typing a letter (of gobbledy-gook).

I’m not a huge Mario fan, but I did enjoy this typing tutor. It was addictive and it worked damnit! It’s a really good typing tutor. If you want to refine your skills so you can get that super-secretary job, or you want to be able to say more on IRC in a shorter span of time, then definitely have a turn with this. It’s abandonware, so it’s free. And one of the best free ones out there I’m sure.

There are over 100 different categories of words which you can select from, plus this game also has a special function – you can create your own word lists to use. There is a manual included in the game, plus a small manual available below with instructions.

By default the puzzles are quite large, and it can be a bit time consuming trying to differentiate the letters in that oldschool font. A great feature of this programme is that you can save your games and continue them later.

You can configure the puzzles so they are a bit smaller, use different colours etc. If you are playing on the screen you can have from 10×10 to 24×50 letters. You can also play print games (it’ll send the puzzle to the printer) ranging from 10×10 to 40×80. If you want to keep those kids busy then just generate a random puzzle to the printer. Great for making wordfind books for your Nana too.

I have made a small text file with the keys to use. I was playing this game on a laptop and there was no numberpad. It pays to know the keys if you’re going to be discovering words diagonally.

If you play in DOSBox then I recommend playing this game fullscreen, otherwise you might end up straining your eye-balls!

Check out Wizard Wars, it is an addictive game with annoying sound – just what you come to love and expect from older games!

Another worthy Tetris clone. Well, more like a Beyond Columns clone, because there aren’t funky shapes, only blocks three long. I just had to play this because Beyond Columns was one of my favourite games.

The idea is simple, the blocks fall from the sky, you have to get three in a row to get the points, get four or more and you get even more points. Press spacebar and it’ll toggle the blocks around. Left, right and down do what you would expect them to.

This game has some nice touches, the music is brilliant. You can change what the blocks look like. I like the sparklies one, but there are faces, dice, kinetics, plasma, blobs, all kinds of things! It takes ages to play the game and play them all. It’ll always be exciting

There is a two player option in this game, it is fun to play with others too. A bit like local Tetrinet! The keys for P2 are “w” to toggle the pieces, “c” for left, “b” for right and “v” for down.

If you did like Beyond Columns like I did then you’ll love this

This game was really popular in the arcades over here. Fortunately the PC version isn’t a lame imitation, it was developed the same as the arcade version. I’m glad they did make it for Atari, Amiga and DOS because it’s so damn addictive.

This game is like tetris with a twist. If you aren’t good at 3D or distinguishing colours then you’re gonna be in trouble. The blocks come down a conveyer belt towards you, and you have to collect them and deposit them into the slots below. Sort of like Tubes! However you can only hold a certain amount before they start slipping through. You can only let three slip through and then the level is over. You do get a few chances however. But you’re going to need them for the harder levels.

You are given tasks which you need to complete, such as getting 3 sets of diagonals or 10,000 points. As you play the levels they get faster, so the sooner you accomplish the tasks the better.

I really did enjoy this game. I ended up playing it for hours! Tetris is one of the best games ever made (I have about three different versions on my cellphone). So, if you enjoy tetris, you’ll love this game.