The city of Phlan, once a flourishing trade port, is becoming overrun with monsters of all sorts... and rumor has it that they have amassed a quite spectacular hoard from pillaging the city! This is where you come in, brave adventurers: drive them out of the city and loot their coffers... or die trying.

Pool of Radiance was the first of many Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, or AD&D; for short, role-playing games published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. back in the day, a series that would become known as the famed Gold Box games, named after the gold-colored boxes they came in.

So, dear player, look up why negative Armor Class is suddenly good and what the heck THAC0 means, roll your die, and go kill some monsters and steal all their money!

It was a long time ago that we surprised you with a new game, but here it is! It's not exactly THAT game with the same name from Epic MegaGames, but sure it's epic in it's own way.

If you are ready for some old fashioned hack-and-slash action against dragons, dinosaurs, and polar bears 1991 style, here it is! Immerse yourself in a world of ice, forests, and vile beasts - and ride a flame spewing lizard above the world!

We would like to thank marko_river for the excellent and unbiased review and the beautiful screenshots, oldschool DOS sensei Ermuli for the archives, and local treasure hunter Geezer for a scan of the original manual, a disk image of the original diskettes, and of course two high resolution boxshots of the jewel case.

Both games announced last week have found volunteering reviewers, thank you!

But we'll continue publishing in the future, so keep in mind. Also if you feel like writing a review of a particular game, you can search for it in the requests board, and if it's approved, we can probably find the game for you to review, so it can be added to the website.

Big news! We're beginning to publish games without reviews, to actually enhance the process of getting reviews for the unpublished games we had, lost in the attic. This means that you no longer have to wait unreasonably long times to see your contributions published because you aren't feeling like a writer.

It also means that when you see a game without a review, identified by a huge "review this" banner, you can click on the banner to volunteer for reviewing it. We think that this way we'll actually get games reviewed faster, and do a better job of making games available to you.

We're starting this with a double game release:

• Warcraft II Tides of Darkness and the expansion Beyond the Dark Portal, courtesy of The Fifth Horseman, complete with manuals. This was really overdue! If you haven't played yet the second game of Blizzard's Warcraft universe (really?!) now you can; and if you have, I'm sure you'll be up for some revisiting.


• Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, from AbandoniaEddie: an old flight simulator licensed from the first human to break the sound barrier.

Enjoy, and please consider helping us with reviewing them!


posted by Japo // 14-06-2013 // permalink

We have added a text manual for Wing Commander Academy thanks to AbandoniaEddie, and the manuals for Battle Isle 2 (MILOP + Weapon Systems + Reference Cards in one PDF) thanks to Tharod. Fire at will!

Thanks to Smashgorand we have added the manual for Ocean Trader, as well as a perfect, non ripped archive, and the original CD image. Go trading!

Exclusive thanks go to BranjoHello who has reviewed this undying classic. The game itself is not available for download here, since it is sold legally by the copyright holders.

Happy New Year, fellow Abandonians!

What would be a better reason to celebrate the beginning of 2013 than presenting you a new game?

Local badass TotalAnarchy tracked down a copy of the Necronomicon, and summoned us a horror adventure from nowhere else but the dreaded, dark, twisted realm of H.P. Lovecraft. Prisoner of Ice was part of the Cthulhu franchise following games like Call of Cthtulhu: Shadow of the Comet, and Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of Earth.

If you're looking forward to a grim adventure around the world of mortals, traveling to places like the Antarctica or Buenos Aires, only to solve one of the greatest mysteries involving a chain of murders you've come to the right place.

Once more it's that magical time of the year, when gifts and joy are abound, and families reunite to celebrate the holidays and the spirit of giving.

Here at Abandonia, we'd like to remind our kind and loyal readers of all the good Christmas or Winter themed games we have available, in case you may have not noticed them before!

In Jazz Jackrabbit - Holiday Hare '95, the player once more has to guide the green jackrabbit with an attitude, Jazz, running and gunning his way through a short episode of Epic's wonderful side-scroller franchise.

Guiding the mischievous Lemmings in the Holiday Lemmings Pack will prove to be a tasty challenge for those who prefer a bit of thinking over action.

For those that prefer the thrills of a racing or driving game, look no further than Skyroads - Xmas Special, where you're in control of a futuristic vehicle gliding along on mysterious floating roads.

And finally, for the players who prefer the sports genre of games, there are the Winter Olympic themed games, such as The Games - Winter Challenge from Mindscape/Accolade, The Games - Winter Edition by Epyx, Winter Games by Action Graphics/Epyx and Winter Olympics - Lillehammer 94 from U.S. Gold.

In conclusion, I wish you Happy Holidays in the name of the entire staff, and hope that maybe, you'll find some fun with one of the aforementioned winter titles. :D

Have you been desperately searching for a game you played as a child, but just can't seem to be able to recall it's title, or do you vaguely remember something great that was on the cover CD of an old magazine you once had?

Well, whatever is the case, now you can ask for the help of our retro enthusiast old video game experts!

The Forgotten Games Bureau has opened recently. It is the place where you can post your thread to find your game. However, there are a set of rules established to help you find it, and most importantly, help us in the search. Be sure to read the quick guide before posting a thread, we guarantee doing so will get more attention to it, especially if you're giving as many details as possible.