News Archive - 2008

2008-12-27

Blake Stone (PC) is one of those games which first are fun for a time. Using the Wolfenstein 3D engine it achieves little more than that game.

2008-12-20

Here we are with the next game (including a floppy disk image, of course): Crown (PC).

2008-12-17

This update is brought to you thanks to Evergreen who (amongst other files) uploaded a disk image of StarControl (PC). Thanks a lot! Of course, the whole point of preserving games in their original state means that this comes with the copy protection intact. If you don't have the codewheel and want to use it, you might want to have a look at [application]Neverlock[/application].

2008-12-13

Here are some more disk images:
* Mortal Kombat (PC)
* Outrun (PC)
* Pizza Connection (PC)
* Pirates! (PC)

Unfortunately, not that many people seem to be able to help with this. The number of game collectors (you know... the people who actually own games and don't just download them) is lower than expected. Which makes it all the more important that the elite circle does something about preserving the games. So once again: This is for everyone's benefit, so if you do have any games on floppy disks, please share them with the world!

2008-12-01

Two users have already been so kind as to upload disk images from their own collections - thanks to T-Pow and Gert! This also brings us to something which I assumed would be obvious, but before anyone is disappointed: We're happy about any disk images you send in, but only those of games which are already listed on the site will be made available immediately to everybody.

Anyway, here are the four we could match to our collection:
* Colonization (PC)
* Ökolopoly (PC)
* Spellcasting 301: Spring Break (PC)
* UFO: Enemy Unknown (PC)

Keep the files coming, everyone!

2008-11-29

There are some conventions which are just fairly random. One of them is that games for IBM PCs are spread as installed versions while all others can usually be found as disk images. There isn't really a reason for making this difference (at least as far as computers which have a harddrive are concerned).

We've already been adding installed versions of Amiga games for quite a few years now, and we've also added full CD versions of any games where such versions exist. The last logical step missing in this is, of course, adding floppy disk images of PC games as well.

This will always be an additional option and not replace installed versions. If you're one of the people who just want to try a game as quickly as possible, don't bother downloading disk images. If you're a collector, however, you'll find this is the best option: the original format the games came in.

To give you a basic idea of how to handle such files, there is a new Disk Images FAQ dealing with the creation and usage of floppy and CD images. The former leads us right to the point which is probably most important about this: We need your help!

I personally used other computers than IBMs for gaming until the mid-90s, so my own collection of floppy games is limited. Many disks have also already gone bad, and quite a few of the other games I own we can't offer for legal reasons.

So, come on, people - creating an image of a floppy disk takes only a minute and the process is described step-by-step in the FAQ linked above. To start out, here are a few from my collection (and more are to come), but it's really up to you to expand on this.

* Battle Isle 2 (PC)
* Championship Manager '93 (PC)
* Deadline (PC)
* Fantasy Empires (PC)
* Flashback (PC)
* Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist (PC)
* Heimdall 2 (PC)
* Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (PC)
* History Line 1914-1918 (PC)
* Panzer General (PC)
* Pirates! Gold (PC)
* Raptor (PC)

2008-11-24

It's a bit late and I want to get on bed, so you will get downloads tomorrow (which probably really means today). For now, I hope you find pleasure reading the review for Lands of Lore (PC).

And while we are on it: remember people, making reviews is great and we are awaiting yours.

2008-11-15

The top ten run has now hopefully sunk into your conciousness enough, so what's following now is a phase of the usual 'whatever comes to your mind'. I don't know what your plans for the site are, so I don't know what you guys will add next. I can only try to keep the passive part of the crowd entertained with a few favourites of mine. So here's Jeopardy! (PC).

2008-11-01

So here we are - the end of the line, the cream of the crop. The game most people have been looking for. Obviously, it's a very popular game, and admittedly, it is a game which would have fit in my 'filling gaps' run some time ago, because the first part of the series has already been on the site for a long time. Ah, first clue - it's a sequel. It also belongs to one of the genres less represented on the site (second clue). However, now I see that this writing of clues is kind of pointless as your eye will wander to the bold, underlined part of the text which spells out the game's name anyway, so without further ado, let's get to #1: Lemmings 2: The Tribes (Amiga).

Obviously, #1 concludes the run of your most requested games. Thanks for everyone who followed the list and we hope you appreciate those new game entries. You really should, because after all, it is the games you wanted to see...

2008-10-27

I don't think it's just because I'm an snob, but the popular games don't tend to be of my liking. In this case it is the next on the list of popular searches: #2 Anvil of Dawn (PC). I always knew it had quite a few fans, but really I can't see why.

2008-10-23

Although all the latest games have been amongst the most popular ones (obviously, that's the whole point of this run), the top three are always yet another step above the rest. So, the hot phase is beginning today with #3: Star General (PC). Another one of these games which really aren't very good, but which are still interesting in their own way. And to prevent the e-mail: I'm aware that there is an English CD rip floating around the Internet. That 'thing' is horrible - I'm not going to put it up for download. On the other hand, if anyone is willing to provide a full English version, we're interested, of course.

2008-10-20

Graphical adventures used to be THE game genre. You know, wanted to make a game? You thought of them. Today's new game following the most wanted list is one of them: #4 Simon the Sorcerer (PC).

2008-10-16

You see, we don't have many of those airplane shooters around, and now the list grows with: #5 Raptor (PC). I fear it is not as good as popular, personally I preffer R-Type and similars.

2008-10-14

Well - that didn't work so great. As already hinted at two weeks ago the site's growth in popularity put quite a strain on the old server - until it became too much. Setting up this new dedicated server took longer than anticipated... well, you know the rest. Anyway, we're back now and the upside is that with more hardware resources, the site should now be a lot more responsive - till the next visitor boom at least.

Of course, this got our update schedule concerning the top requested games a bit. To get back on track as soon as possible, I'm picking up where Wandrell left it last time immediately. You know, some (most in fact) of those search queries are quite ambigous. In most cases, you visitors only enter a single word, which could be interpreted as many different games. This was such a case: There is a fairly popular game which has the search term in its title, but the title isn't the search term. On the other hand, there is a game whose title matches the search term exactly, but which is not quite as popular. In the end, we decided to go for the latter, and so #6 is Prince (Amiga).

2008-10-04

And for #7 Flashback (PC). I'm too tired to comment anything, so please take a look to the game, it's worth it.

2008-09-29

What is the eight game? #8 Worms (PC). The surprise is that I thought it was more popular, but I'm pretty sure not many of its fans know the first one was for MS-Dos and similars.

2008-09-25

For next game in our top ten (see last news post), Elwood volunteered to take care of it: #9: Hattrick! (PC).

2008-09-20

After a little more than one month with this new site, we're confident most things are working now, so it's time for some additional focus on the contents again. Wandrell and I decided to do something different:

Over the next weeks, we'll be filling game requests. More specifically, we'll add the top ten games entered into the 'Game Name' search box.

Actually, it won't be the real top ten, because those consist of games which are already on the site. The top search term - believe it or not - is Winzer, followed by the usual suspects (Ufo, Colonization, Monkey Island and such). Also, we're only counting search terms which are applicable, i.e. games which have just been released last month aren't counted (seriously folks - why search for those on a site called 'The Good Old Days') and application titles don't really belong in a field labelled 'Game Name', either.

As usual for such lists, we'll list the 'remaining' top ten in reverse order. So today, I can offer #10: Dogs of War (Amiga).

You'll see that the selection you dictated will be quite varied. Today's game is on the simple side of things, and age-wise older than most of what will come. In any case, I'm confident there'll be something for everyone.

Oh, and don't get any ideas: Entering whatever you want a hundred times into the search box now won't change things. We're adding the top ten searched games of the first month, so the games are already fixed now...

2008-08-24

Three pieces of good news: Wandrell is back, he's added a game and in spite of the rather shaky technical basis, it seems to have worked fine. A few will have noticed Bumpy's Arcade Fantasy (PC) being online for most of the day already, but I took my time to verify things before actually announcing it.

2008-08-16

Finally... six months late, but it still got finished: the new incarnation of The Good Old Days. This version mainly tries to accomplish two things: integration and crosslinking.

Integration meaning all contributions and administrative tasks can now be committed directly through the site itself. Just have a look at the menu on the left - every registered member can use those functions to make the site better. 'Registered' leading to another integration aspect: We're now using the forum's member database on the site, too. So you can log in and use all those great features with your forum username and password. Just try it out.

Crosslinking meaning that on every page, we try to point you to other pages useful in relation to the current one. You'll find those links in the second horizontal strip on top. On game pages, this will obviously be links to screenshots and downloads, in on the 'about' page, you'll find a link to the new site history article and so on.

Now, as usual, there has to be a warning: All of this is still beta. Not beta in the buzzword sense as it is used by virtually every huge company these days to look cool. They actually have tested their 'beta' versions extensively. We're just a few hobbyists here, so that's a completely different story. Things are bound to break in the first weeks. If they don't, you're not trying hard enough. Please let us know if you encounter any errors or just any irritations!

2008-08-10

The Dig (PC) concludes the series of Lucas Arts games for now. Although there are a few more, I don't really consider those 'classic' anymore (and they're also not very good).

2008-08-05

Darishnoo decided to give Full Throttle (PC) a second treatment, arriving at a slightly different conclusion than me. That's great, as we now have both the generally common views right there on the page.

2008-08-02

Oh well... I'm running a little thin here by now. Hopefully, Wandrell will be able to make a return soon (then again, we all know ISPs and the 'quality' of service...). Today's game is Full Throttle (PC), a somewhat entertaining romp by a Lucas Arts past their prime.

2008-07-26

Here is a game which I just can't seem to be able to write a positive review about. Back in 1994, when I first wrote something about it, it was predominantly about things I didn't like about this game, and people were wondering why I still gave it such a good rating. Reading my own all-new writeup, I'm fairly sure it'll be the same effect this time for Sam & Max Hit the Road (PC).

2008-07-20

Since you're supposed to win something from others contributing to the site, I'm adding the next game on my own regular schedule in spite of Vemperor's game a few days ago: Day of the Tentacle (PC) (I'm fully expecting angry mobs to come and lynch me - bring it on).

2008-07-17

It took five days to be all wrapped up, but finally, here's Vemperor's first review since January 2001: The Addams Family (Game Boy). Actually, I have to say that's fairly normal. I usually take longer from the first draft of a review until it's published - just that you usually don't get to see this process.

2008-07-11

One day earlier than scheduled, here comes the next game: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Amiga).

In addition, I'd like to mention that thanks to Vemperor, six more game reviews have been translated into German during the last week. If he had some help, we'd have full bilinguality in no time...

2008-07-05

Filling blanks, remember? Lucasfilm still has quite a few of those here, so here we go. I always thought it isn't really necessary to cover their games, because they're all very well-known anyway. Seeing the countless sites claiming Maniac Mansion is their first Adventure, though, this no longer seems to be the case - Labyrinth (C64) has fallen from the radar.

2008-06-28

Elwood's source of reviews has dried up for now, and Wandrell is without Internet access at the moment, so you're stuck with me. Once it became clear this would happen, I decided to fill in some obvious blanks, i.e. add games which have already been missing for very long. For example, we have had the first two Kyrandia games online for years already, so Legend of Kyrandia 3 - Malcolm's Revenge (PC) has been more than overdue.

2008-06-11

As you can see, we're down to weekly updates again. Simple reason: We're busy trying to get the next incarnation of the site running. Me developing it and all of us alpha testing it. Anyway, for now, here's Gemline (PC).

2008-05-29

First of all, sorry about the extended downtime yesterday and today. Although we're trying to avoid things like that, it's not always possible. Anyway, here's another game for your enjoyment Das Schwarze Auge: Die Schicksalsklinge (PC) (better known as Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny abroad).

2008-05-26

After this slightly longer break between the updates (caused by some server problems I had to take care of first), here's another one of Elwood's reviews: Deluxe Trivial Pursuit (PC).

2008-05-22

Right - I knew it! There I was going to surprise Mr Creosote and while I sneak in that game he does an update as well without showing up on ICQ. Here's what you get for it: Buck Rogers - Planet of Zoom (PC)

2008-05-22

It's going very, very well at the moment. The more people participating in expanding the site, the more diversified it gets - which is good. Today, Jumpman Junior adds World Karate Championship (C64).

2008-05-20

The results of the last poll (about your favourite game) are online, along with an explanation for those who didn't get the point.

2008-05-17

With the addition of Ultima VIII (PC), we now have most of the series online.

2008-05-13

And once again, we have the results of a poll to show. It was about your year of birth / your age. In the new poll, we want to know about your favourite game.

Edit: Since this has been asked a few times already - yes, everything's alright with this poll. The options you see are exactly the ones which should be there.

2008-05-08

Darts isn't exactly a game which translates well onto the computer. However, at least according to Elwood, World Darts (PC) doesn't seem to be such a bad choice if you're looking for such a game after all.

2008-05-04

Heyah! Basically this is my first newspost here, but I doubt anyone will remember me anyway. So well... I used to run a big abandonware site aaaages ago. Now I review a game for Mr Creosote every once in a while.

Today I reviewed Puzznic (PC) - a game from the golden era of puzzle-games. Hope you enjoy it!

2008-04-29

Poll time again. 'Why do you come here?' has been answered, now we want to know about your age.

2008-04-15

Once again, it's time for a new poll and the results of the previous one have been posted. Now, we want to know about the reasons you have for coming here.

2008-04-09

Our newest contributor, sandy21, who has been translating quite a few reviews into German already, makes his debut as a reviewer today: Red Storm Rising (PC).

2008-04-06

I think you can imagine of which game this one is the second part: The Island of Dr Brain (PC).

Not as good as the first one, but nice enough to play through it.

2008-04-02

The next poll has expired, and its results are online. Again, thanks to everyone who voted and please take a minute for the next one.

2008-03-23

Maybe I'm in a bad mood lately and can't appreciate things or maybe it's just luck, but here comes another mediocre yet popular game which I thought we had reviewed already.

I used to like Heimdall 2 (PC), well I still find it good if you look for a short game. But also I think that probably there was a good reason for it being a popular choice on the cheap games collections.

2008-03-21

Results of the first poll about the games' year of release have been posted. Unfortunately, only very few people voted. I hope this will become better with the next poll (see right side) - it's only in your best interest to voice your opinion, after all.

2008-03-16

I had played more than once Hexx (PC) but never much until now. Looked good but not too fun, so I wasn't surprised to discover that it really is good but not too fun.

2008-03-09

I nearly forgot I had this review prepared: Don't Go Alone (PC), a curious dungeon crawler, nothing special if it weren't for a few details.

2008-02-26

And what do we have today? It's the site's eigth birthday! Of course, you already knew since we've been celebrating all month. We promised to add a new game each day until the birthday itself. Successfully done. We hope you enjoyed the run.

This special day itself is dedicated to the other main part of the site, though. It's the complete renovation of the comics section. So far, it has almost always been a side-product of the rest of the site code-wise, added as an afterthought.

This changes today. To make the change completely apparant and also to force myself not to fall into this old habit again, the comics section is now written in Perl (while PHP is used for the rest of the site). In fact, what I've used there is a generic website framework I've written many years ago (with some modernizations and minor changes). It can host any kind of contents. To achieve this, it uses a page-centric approach, turning the content-centric idea which had been used before upside-down.

Anyway, I doubt many people are interested in the technical background (which is quite fascinating in fact), so I'll just say: Enjoy it! Error reports are welcome, and they should be easy, since the system basically tracks itself and should show errors and warnings to you directly, without the whole displaying of the respective page failing.

So, let's all raise our glass to the next year!

2008-02-25

Yet another game. Will it ever stop? Of course, so better enjoy it while it lasts. Today's game was one of the most requested ones a few years ago. These days, it's not in such high demand anymore, so I guess we can risk putting it up without facing certain bancruptcy due to exploding bandwidth costs. So here it is: Die total verrückte Rallye (PC).

2008-02-24

Today's update once again comes from Wandrell: Goody (PC) might not look overly attractive, but he praises the gameplay very highly.

2008-02-23

Italy 1990 (Amiga): Man, did I play this game in the early 90s... sitting in front of the TV for hours and hours, ruining my eyesight. Even though I already knew the game was bad back then. Those were different times...

2008-02-21

I neglected to let you know what day the site anniversary is exactly so far (this piece of information can easily be found in the news archive, of course). So maybe the promise to add a game every day didn't sound that impressive at first. I hope this has changed by now as we're still going, and there are also still a few more days to go. Anyway, today, we have Zeewolf 2: Wild Justice (Amiga). Stay tuned for more.

2008-02-18

Wandrell reviewed Jungle Strike (PC) for today's update. Fits extremely well with the helicopter games and helicopter-like games which have already been part of this update series.

2008-02-16

This update is to cater to the average visitor of the site. The average visitor who wants his games as young as possible and as good as possible. So, here's a high quality game from the mid-90s: Zeewolf (Amiga).

2008-02-13

Next on the list is Virus (Atari ST) (no, we don't have an Acorn section yet - anyone?). Widely regarded as a classic, and rightly so, yet not a game I personally could give a positive rating.

2008-02-12

For all those who haven't visited this month yet: We're in the middle of the site anniversary celebrations, with one new game being added every day. Today, that game is Fire Fighter (Atari 2600).

2008-02-11

Paradroid II (Amiga) concludes the flood of Paradroid-related games for now. I'm perfectly aware of the two additional C64 versions Graftgold made back in the day, but as you might be able to imagine, it's a little hard to come up with yet another way to describe the same gameplay idea... The anniversary updates will continue in spite of that, of course.

2008-02-10

Tenth day of the anniversary celebrations, but you haven't even seen half of it yet. Dingsda (Amiga) once again proves the most common prejudice against games made from TV shows.

2008-02-09

Although I tend to review bad games more often these days, this doesn't mean there aren't any good games left to cover: Road Rash (Amiga).

2008-02-08

The eigth day of the celebrations of the eigth birthday of the site. Today, I'd like to presend Paradroid 90 (Amiga) to you. Another Graftgold classic, yet not quite as good as the original.

2008-02-07

Magnetron (ZX Spectrum) is a lot better than the previous game, but at the same time, nowhere near as good as its prequel (which is already available on this site).

2008-02-06

Old games is not always good games. In fact, many were quite terrible. Sites like this one tend to concentrate on the good aspects of the past for obvious reasons, but to set this record straight at least to some degree, here's Deathbringer: The Sword of Abaddon (Amiga).

2008-02-05

Since the best of the anniversary games hasn't been viewed enough yet, here's a scheme to drive more traffic towards it: Quazatron (ZX Spectrum) is its sequel.

2008-02-04

Crackpots (Atari 2600) is one of those ultra-simple games which you can learn to play within seconds. Completely intuitive, but also quite shallow, of course.

2008-02-02

The second game is a very good computerized version of a very good board game: Cluedo: Master Detective (Amiga).

2008-02-01

As you all know (ha, ha), the site's anniversary is approaching fast. In fact, it's at the end of this month. Each year, there's the question of what to do... and this year, we're doing something we've never done before: We're starting the celebrations early. In other words: today.

As a special gift, there'll be a new game on the site every day until the actual anniversary. Starting today. So keep visiting for juicy new additions! Starting today... with Battlezone (Atari 2600).

2008-01-19

Abuse (PC) fills your screen with enemies and explosions. Action packed and hard, it's a quite good game with some novelties, mainly that even though it's 2D, you shoot with the mouse.

2008-01-13

Nr. 10 concludes the Interpart series. Phew.

As you've probably already noticed, I removed the offer to scan more series' as soon as they're completed some time ago already. This isn't a mistake - the offer is over. Although looking back, some people have thankfully jumped in and provided other comic scans, but it didn't have the overall effect I had hoped for. I wanted to expand the comics section collaboratively, sharing the work with others more or less equally. This never happened. Not even close! I received a few scans, sure, but I was still the one processing all the images and writing each and every word of the plot synopsis, the quick comment after it and the running commentary of the 'read online' versions.

I don't think anyone even considered helping with any of this. Shows how people are only interested in 'sharing' (i.e. downloading) the comics. Since I have absolutely no advantage of that (it costs me money, and it burns my free time), I'm at a low point of motivation (which stems from sharing a common passion, i.e. not just things flowing into only one direction) once again.

So don't expect much in the future. I still have a few scans lying here which people have sent in, and I will put those up sooner or later. Same if you send in more. But it might take its time.

2008-01-09

In a desperate attempt to fulfill my promise, here's Nr. 8.

2008-01-06

I can't really seem to get a grip on the comics anymore. Always trying to take it more seriously, but still, it's just not happening. But this time I promise: no other updates from me until the Interpart series is completed! Starting with Nr. 7 today.

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