Retro

Prince of Persia - a classic game for DOS When I first ran Prince of Persia on PC-DOS I remember thinking, “finally, a DOS game that rivals the fun I had on Commodore 64 games.” I was never very good at the game (and that continues today), but it’s a classic game. The original DOS version has a port for Linux which you can find on github here: (https://github.com/NagyD/SDLPoP?tab=readme-ov-file) The simplest method to install SDLPoP on Ubuntu/Xubuntu Linux If you’re on Xubuntu, or another Ubuntu-variant, there is a snap for the game (called sdlpop). To install the snap simply open a terminal and type: ...

Paradroid, has a version for Linux Growing up in the Commodore 64 era, I’m particularly fond of the games of that age. Games in that era tended to be simpler, but sometimes within that simplicity were some really neat concepts. Paradroid was one of those games that was particularly unique and interesting. There’s a really good look-back at Paradroid on the LemonTube64 Youtube channel here: (https://youtu.be/kkEBccMEhXs) Freedroid “classic” is a port of the game to Linux. The website for Freedroid classic might be a bit confusing when you first arrive because the same developers also worked on an isometric 3D-like game they called FreedroidRPG. The web site for both is: ...

Bards Tale III – my introduction to 3D like adventure Back in the late 1980’s I worked for Simcoe Computer Consultants at the 400 Market, outside of Barrie, Ontario. The 400 Market was a mixed market of many vendors, one of which was Simcoe Computer Consultants. I spent the weekends manning the company’s booth, selling the odd item, and spreading the word about the company’s computers and services. One weekend Cec, one of the company owners, mentioned that a lead from the market had helped them sell a bunch of computers, and I was welcome to pick a piece of software as a reward. I picked Bard’s Tale III, Thief of Fate, a dungeon crawling game with a 3D-like interface. Bard’s Tale III quickly became one of my favourite games, it mixed D&D elements with a more urgent element where one wrong turn could lead to a face to face encounter with deadly monsters. ...