1993 – The Retro Gaming Treasury

Game 121: Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist (1993): Introduction

On June 28, 2020June 28, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

by Alex Hello there, dear The Adventure Gamer family. I am back after a long absence to review another game, and another Al Lowe game, but this time it’s not an entry in the Leisure Suit Larry series. No, I’m leaving my polyester pal behind and traveling to the old […]

Game 124: Ecoquest 2: Lost Secret of the Rainforest (1993) – Introduction

On June 24, 2020June 24, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Reiko Almost four years ago, I covered the original Ecoquest here on the blog, and now we’ve arrived at the sequel: Lost Secret of the Rainforest. Instead of diving deep below the sea, this time we’ll be exploring the rainforest. You may remember that Ecoquest had a bit […]

Eric the Unready – Fair and Fowl – Request for Assistance

On May 18, 2020May 18, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by TBD Eric the Unready Journal Entry #4: I found myself in a fair near a fire-breathing dragon. And the dragon’s protecting the Steak of Eternity. Seems simple enough – just need to cover myself from head to toe in fireproof armor and steal a hungry dragon’s meal. I’ve got […]

Eric the Unready – Secret of the Snooze

On April 30, 2020April 30, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by TBD Eric the Unready Journal Entry #3: My nightmares are filled with turtles – small turtles, tall turtles, elderly turtles, teenage turtles, ninja turtles. Hopefully Lorealle can stay safe while I collect a seemingly random collection of objects… Day 4: Blicester Castle – It’s Only a Model While […]

Eric the Unready – The Acceptably Decent Underground Empire

On April 19, 2020April 19, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by TBD Eric the Unready Fondor Bindlecrank Journal Entry #2: I’m well on the way to rescuing the princess. My magic banana worked, I think. It took me to the location of one of the items that Bud the Wizard told me I’d need to complete my quest. I […]

Eric the Unready – As Happy As A Pig In … Let’s Say… Mud

On April 10, 2020April 10, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by TBD Eric the Unready Journal Entry #1: My first real assignment! After defeating the Knight of the Black Pauldron, I was given another important job where I met the most adorable creature I’ve ever seen – I also met a princess!Day 1: How do you like them apples? […]

Missed Classic 84: The Pesach Adventure (1993)

On April 8, 2020April 8, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Happy Passover! For the last five years, we have had an annual tradition of a Christmas adventure, a special one-off look at a festive game for the holiday season. I love playing and documenting these games, but the truth is that Christmas is not a holiday […]

Shadow of the Comet – Final Rating

On April 1, 2020April 1, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

By limbeck The first time I played Shadow of the Comet was probably some time in the late ’90s or early 2000s. I was relatively fresh in RPGs and the Cthulhu Mythos, and still at university. So, a Cthulhu Mythos inspired adventure game definitely looked like just what I needed […]

Game 118: Eric the Unready (1993) – Introduction

On March 30, 2020March 30, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by TBD Eric the Unready is the next graphic adventure game from Legend Entertainment, and the highest rated adventure game ever, according to Computer Game Review. A quick glance at a screenshot shows that it uses essentially the same interactive fiction (with graphics) engine as Legend’s other games, Spellcasting 101, […]

Shadow of the Comet – Won!

On March 24, 2020March 24, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by limbeck And so we arrive at the final showdown. The town itself is cleansed from the four families that were working to bring their evil plans to fruition, but all is not yet clear in the skies over Illsmouth. NARACKAMUS is still alive and the comet’s passing is […]

Shadow of the Comet – Social calls

On March 18, 2020March 18, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by limbeck It took me several sessions to finish Shadow of the comet and you will probably understand it from this post (Edit: and the next one. I had to split the post in two). This last part of the game was much more action-adventurey than I could take, […]

Missed Classic 83: Asylum II (1982) – Introduction

On March 12, 2020March 12, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Will Moczarski Introduction: Prelude to a Sequel Asylum must have been a major success for Med Systems Software, as the team of company president William F. Denman jr. and Frank L. Corr jr. teamed up once more about one year later to program its sequel, simply called Asylum […]

Shadow of the Comet – Flight of Icarus

On March 10, 2020March 10, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

By limbeck Things have progressed more smoothly in this session, with a bit of excitement and a lot more exposition. I finished the previous one after getting a quest from Mr UNDERHOUSE to get a diary from the Mayor’s safe and with Miss PICOTT vehemently refusing to give me her […]

Journeyman Project – Final Rating

On March 7, 2020March 7, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Reiko All the way back on gameplay post 1, one of our intrepid commenters managed to neatly summarize my final sense of the game. Ross said, “This is one of my favorite series of games, but man is this first one clunky.” That’s exactly it. It was a […]

Game 117: The Legacy: Realm of Terror (1993) – Introduction

On March 2, 2020March 2, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

By Voltgloss In 1992, Infogrames released Alone in the Dark, which put the player in the role of an unsuspecting investigator who experiences the horrors of the mansion of an eccentric magnate, after said eccentric magnate committed suicide. The player tries to escape from the mansion, the unspeakable lurking fears […]

Shadow of the Comet – Development Hell

On February 29, 2020February 29, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by limbeck So, the last session finished with me recovering from last night’s events and Dr COBBLE prescribing me some pills to stop a heart attack. As I get off bed and put on my clothes, I have two goals for the day: get these pills from the pharmacy; […]

The Journeyman Project – Justice – Won!

On February 27, 2020February 27, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Reiko Agent 5 Journal #5: “My work is finally done here. Sinclair is neutralized and the timeline should be back to normal now. He’ll be imprisoned, I’m sure, and justice will be done. After all, if I hadn’t stopped them, his robots would have killed thousands of people. […]

Shadow of the Comet – Miss PICOTT’s Dominion

On February 19, 2020February 19, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by limbeck The town of Illsmouth is quaint, but what about the forest surrounding it? I am curious to scout the forest, in case there are any locations I was missing. I am wrong. The forest consists of a sort of a maze, with only a handful of different […]

The Journeyman Project – Last Impression

On February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Reiko Agent 5 Journal #4: “I’m almost done. All three robots are destroyed, and now the last thing to do is to catch up with Elliot Sinclair. My impression of him is that he’s unstable and very dangerous. I was almost flattened by his robot, after all. He […]

Shadow of the Comet – A Friendly Little Town

On February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by limbeck So, here I am, in my not so austere room, getting to grips with the controls of the game. I can move with the arrow buttons, but only on four directions, which seems fair. Sometimes, though, you jump to the next screen by stepping at the wrong […]