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Note: Some games may omit to mention all the game controls, so these are some common game controls, although not all games will use them.
F1 for help, F4 switch between a window and fullscreen, F5 saves game, F6 load a saved game, Esc exit the game.


Star Castle.

Star Castle is a remake of the old arcade game of the same name, that I wasted many 10p pieces on as a lad.
It's quite a difficult game, requiring dexterity, speed and stratergy. A fortress sits in the center of the screen, surrounded by three force shields and it releases a steady stream of guided missiles at your ship.
You must make a hole in the shields and destroy the fortress. But the shields are made in sections and if you completely destroy a shield a new one is generated.
When you finally break through the inner most shield, the fortress will fire its devastating primary weapon at you (gulp).

The game has three difficulty levels and it gets harder, with each fortress you destroy, my best is a measly six fortresses destroyed before all my ships were lost.

The game has a great retro feel to it, with vector line graphics and "beepy" sound effects. A help text file is included, with further help on the title screen, although the chosen font (popular years ago) is hard to read.
It's a good idea to alter the thrust and fire keys as using Ctrl and Alt makes it easy to hit the Windows key when you get excited (or perhaps that's just me).
Star Castle is a nice blast from the past, for all the game playing oldies.

Freeware -- Download size 700k -- No spec given, tested on XP.
Note: no install required, just unzip and play.

http://project-apollo.net/game/index.html

Retrobattle.

Retrobattle is a fairly standard platform game, that harks back to the days of the Sinclair Spectrum and Commodore64, with its simple chunky, but colourful graphics and beeping sound effects.
You play as Captain Good(!), who has the task of retrieving valuable items from the cargo of a crashed spaceship. Unfortunately the ship is infested with dangerous aliens, who like nothing better than a tasty spaceman for dinner.

Retrobattle is quite entertaining, with varied level layouts and a diverse selection of aliens, each with different characteristics.
There are a few useful powerups available, but you can't upgrade the rather slow loading gun and the two gun powerups only have one shot each. But despite the limited weaponry, it is possible, with a bit of forethought, to complete each level.
You can't save your progress through the game, but you can choose your starting level and difficulty, so if you lose all three lives, you don't need to start from the beginning, however your score starts from zero again.
A very detailed help text file is supplied, which tells you all you need to know about the game, including how to kill some of the more resilient aliens.

Freeware -- Download size 1.38MB -- Win 98SE,ME,2000,XP

Note: No install required, just unzip and play.

http://www.remar.se/daniel/retrobattle.php

Gamefabrique.

The Gamefabrique web site hosts a large collection of old console games, that have been converted (I believe ported is the correct term.) to run on PCs.
There are games of all types and you are bound to find some old favorites, I found the popular desert/jungle strike collection of helicopter games, as well as Lemmings, a very passable game of Risk, the much underrated Herzg Zwei and my favorite Star Control.

Star Control -- I could be in some trouble here!!!

The game graphics and sounds are primitive by modern standards, but the games are still as playable as they were. I did initially think that the graphics were worse than I remembered, but firing up my old MegaDrive, that I had stored in the loft, showed that they were identical.
None of the games come with help files, as originally they were all packaged with paper manuals, but some information is provided on the Gamefabrique web site and I find Google, or Wikipedia can be a good place to start looking for more information on a game. For example here is an excellent Herzog Zwei tutorial: http://www.fiction.net/~jeske/Projects/HZ/hz_tutorial.html

The games were designed to work with a gamepad and are more fun if you have one, although they will work with the keyboard (the default). You can alter the control keys, or device, in Option -- set config -- controllers.
You can also set the full screen resolution, which usefully stops the program changing your screen resolution, when using full screen.

There is a full index of games, or a smaller selection at the bottom of the web page. When using the index, I found that the direct downloads on the right didn't work for me, but the download links on the game description pages were okay.
Not every game listed on the site has been converted, but most have and the downloads are usually under 2MB. The games are supplied as a normal installer and open in a 640*480 window.
No system spec is given, but I have used them with no problems on Win 98se and XP.

http://www.gamefabrique.com

Scramble.

Scramble is a faithful reproduction of the old arcade game, with limited colours and sounds. Despite looking primitive by todays standards, Scramble is a pretty good, if rather difficult game.

You must avoid being destroyed by rockets, aliens and meteors, while destroying ground installations and eventually reaching the enemy base.
Your ship is equipped with a gun and bombs and a limited amount of fuel. It's important to destroy fuel installations as often as possible, to maintain your fuel supply.

Game controls:
Arrow keys to move the ship.
Ctrl fires the gun.
Alt drops a bomb.
Esc exits the game.

Freeware -- Download size 98K -- No spec given, it works on XP and I suspect it will work okay on earlier versions of Windows, but Vista may be a long shot.

No install required, unzip and click the file to run. To uninstall just delete.

Download Scramble

Tempest: Event Horizon by D. Eugene Perry.

Tempest: Event Horizon is a remake of an old arcade game from the 1980s. You control a spaceship at the edge of a vortex and you must destroy attacking aliens as they ascend.
There are five different types of aliens, each with different abilities. The first couple of levels are fairly easy, with just flipper aliens to despatch, but later levels get more frantic, as somewhat more dangerous aliens appear.

The graphics seem to be a faithful reproduction of the original game (as well as I can remember, it was a long time ago) and still work well after all these years. The music fits the game well and there are some eighties style sound effects!

Tempest is quite a difficult game, even on the easy setting and requires a lot of coordination. I must admit, that I could never get very far when playing the game in the arcades and the passage of time hasn't improved matters. But it is an addictive game and a good challenge for those with quick reflexes.

An easy to use level editor is included, allowing you to make your own vortexes and some extra custom levels are included with game. There is a .pdf help file, which explains how to play the game and use the level editor.
Note: Installation is not required, just unzip and play.

Freeware -- Download size 4.35Mb -- Win XP, Vista

http://www.blackratstudios.com/games-full-tempest.html

Note: Also check out the excellent RK-1, Revenge of the Rats, by the same author.

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