Category: Retro

Another revamp of a classic is on the way with Atari once again teaming up with SneakyBox, as the 1981 title Caverns of Mars is releasing as Caverns of Mars: Recharged.

Some of my first real experiences of using Linux as a child came through the use of Knoppix, one of the first distributions to popularize the use of Live CDs. This allowed me to explore a wide swath of Linux applications. One of these was a role playing game which I recall I never got to work well, but lingered on in my imagination regardless.

While their foray into interactive storybooks did fail to impress, it did help remind me of BlackHoleSun Software, one of the earliest Indie developers to create games with Linux in mind. Their most famous game Bunnies was released as shareware in 2001, providing a demo version you could later update through use of a retail key. Thankfully, the story does not have to end there.

DOSBox Staging is a favourite of mine to follow that expands on the original DOSBox but with a focus on implementing new features and fixes. A new major update went out in December 2022 with some big additions.

Sold as interactive storybooks, these took the form of narrated picture books which went over the story from the film while allowing for a certain degree of user agency, typically by allowing a selection of quirky animations to play by clicking around with the mouse. UAV must have wanted in on this craze as well, and so Atlantis: The Underwater City - Interactive Storybook was born.

CatacombGL is an open source project to run Catacomb 3D (1991), The Catacomb Abyss (1992), The Catacomb Armageddon (1992) and The Catacomb Apocalypse (1993).

Given the the company's current focus, the name Hyperion Entertainment seems an odd fit for the modern maintainer of AmigaOS, betraying its earlier status as an Amiga focused video game porting house. One of their ports, that of SiN, to this day remains from them an elusive Linux exclusive.

Selaco, an upcoming GZDoom-based shooter from Altered Orbit Studios has been featured before and I'm bringing it back again here because of the huge upgrade to the demo. It's simply fantastic.

Another chance for you to get a free game, and perhaps take a look at some tasty discounts too with the GOG Winter Sale 2022 now giving away Broken Sword: Director's Cut.

Atari and Adamvision Studios have taken down the original Missile Command: Recharged, and replaced it with another Missile Command: Recharged of the same name but it has been upgraded.

Anyone else remember Dark Reign: The Future of War? Released back in 1997, it's a real classic and at the time it had some pretty favourable reviews too. The good news is that it's being rebuilt by fans using OpenRA.

Recently I mentioned GB Operator a little USB gadget that reads cartridges of the Game Boy, Game Boy Colour and Game Boy Advance. After giving it a go myself, I'm impressed and a little in love.

GB Operator excites the collector in me, giving you a small device to plug into your PC or Steam Deck, allowing you to play real Game Boy cartridges.

Love your classic racing games with low-poly visuals? Keep an eye on Formula Retro Racing - World Tour which releases next year and has a demo available along with Native Linux support.

Augustus is a game engine reimplementation for the classic Caesar III, enabling you to play on modern platforms (like Linux / Steam Deck).

A new retro-powered first-person shooter to fill your time with? It's free too! A.W.O.L. looks like it could be fun for your weekend.

Although being sold for Windows, I found a listing for a physical copy of the free game Circus Linux! as published by Alten8. At first I figured it would just be another keep case in my collection with "Linux" on the cover, but with the source code included, I decided it would be trivial to also build the game for Linux.

Voxel Doom is a mod for GZDoom which replaces 2D characters and props from Doom with fully 3D voxel-based models.

Re-Volt is a retro delight from the year 1999 that originally came to GOG in 2013. Sadly it was pulled from sale when it was found to contain code written by the community, that the release did not have permission to use. Now it's back and on Steam too.

Horizon Chase Turbo is a very highly rated retro racing game from developer AQUIRIS and today it sees a huge free upgrade.